Series: Wallpapers

In response to the ever increasing accusations that my output is not painting but a rather naive attempt to elevate a decorative wallpaper design to the status of a painting by providing it with the attributes of a hung painting, I chose to use a wallpaper format and the title itself. The idea was to show that, in this case, the inherent quality of my paintings, if any, was not founded on playing with the artifact’s attributes in a Duchamp-like mould – although I cannot rule out the side effect of this principle. At that time I had reached a stage when I realised that I was not going to explore realistic depiction any more. I detested psychological and social themes, and found intended lyrical or expressive effects of paintings kitschy. I did not intend to wrestle with “visual” compositions and build “painterly” surfaces. I knew something better and more powerful.
I liked a cup of my grandma’s with red dots and I was pretty certain it was more than “just” the décor on the surface that appealed to me so intensely. I felt it struck a chord with me in the same way that I found inspiration in contemporary minimalist music. I rigged up the long wallpaper formats and having summoned up my full concentration started to paint the simplest patterns: straight lines, undulating lines, dots, carefully selected with a view to create a painting. Raw colours straight from the tube; a simple, solemn and concentrated composition. I sensed I put into it my entire experience from painting the fields and the free, but regular rhythm of the plants, searching for colours and leaving out areas for silence.