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Glance into the world behind the art

Hans Musters - master of the colorful contradictions
HANS MUSTERS / May 22nd, 2018   


Painter Hans Musters is a painter who is blessed with an exceptional talent for drawing. From the eighties he experimented with a multitude of painting techniques, as a result of which his style went through many phases. Traditional subjects such as women, landscapes and still lifes are often the starting point of his works, but these are later supplemented with abstract, almost dramatic elements. From thick layers of paint and organic, striking color surfaces, scenes arise, which are both overwhelming and soothing. Because of this distinctive style, a comparison with the paintings by Hans Musters is almost impossible to make. Partly because of this, his works have now acquired a permanent place in contemporary painting.
 
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In 1977 Hans Musters visited the Groningen art academy Minerva, looking for instructions on drawing and painting. His special interest was in portraits, model drawing and still lifes. It was during this period that Musters developed his natural talent for drawing and realistic painting and laid the foundations for his later works. In the 1980s he became increasingly interested in abstract art. In addition to still lifes, the emphasis was on painting abstract oil paintings. Bright colors were assigned an ever-important role as a talking element. The structure of the painting also underwent a significant change at this time. The basis for the composition was laid out in a color-drawn design. This resulted in a synthesis between his former figurative style and his more recently discovered predilection for abstraction towards the end of the nineties. It was no easy task to unite these two contradictions - an organic abstract work and the demands of a realistic representation. For this Musters developed his own intuitive method, in which the painting is worked out further after applying the color boxes, until a figurative element is created. In this way a person or object emerges as it were from the abstract composition.
 
Reconciliation of opposites
Because of his exceptional ability to reconcile two artistic opposites - the abstract and the strictly figurative, Hans Musters' works are an intriguing and attractive mixture of modern and classic elements in paint. Those who are alert to these contradictions realize that the paintings by Hans Musters are the result of a long discovery journey through various experimental styles of painting. The fact that this search ultimately led to the current style of Musters has besides an evolutionary character also a clear element of victory. And it is precisely this victory over the contrast between the abstract and the figurative, that the canvases of Hans Musters give their unique persuasiveness.
 
Be amazed by the colorful contrasts of Hans Musters, during the Exposition 'Joie de Vivre', which takes place from 15 June to 29 July 2018 in gallery Wildevuur.
 

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