Graphic work of Henk Krijger

Henk Krijger: Paul in Ephesus

Throughout the ages artists have represented reality in their own way; they (and this includes the so-called naturalists) have always had a specific vision of reality. Seldom – or perhaps never – does one encounter an exact representation of reality that also has compositional beauty; the artist always changes and transforms nature so that the result is an aesthetically responsible whole – a whole which, as such, was not exactly present in reality. Also Henk Krijger, whose work bears his very unique stamp, ‘deforms’ reality, specifically placing the images in a way that shows their mutual connectedness, a way that is obedient to aesthetic laws. He never loses the sense that visual art must represent reality; therefore he never sacrifices the recognizability and understandability of the images he is portraying.

Very occasionally in Krijger’s work one could say that what he depicts cannot be found like this in reality, but in those cases the entire work possesses such a compositional and visionary strength, and is so artistically convincing, that the question of the ‘realisticness’ doesn’t even occur to us. In his work Krijger places great emphasis on the decorative element – and therein lies his strength. For that reason, too, his art is so well suited as book illustrations, and so on. Among the works displayed here are the pen-drawn designs for the illuminations of H. de Bruin’s Paul in Ephesus and A. Coolen’s Fairytales for grown-ups – but we will not describe these in more detail here. We are constantly struck by the exceptionally convincing, extremely personal stylizing of reality, from which Krijger’s compositions derive their decorative and expressive effect. This work, though not untouched by contemporary artistic influences (but then, which art would claim that?), nevertheless takes its own honourable place in the ranks of contemporary art.

Originally published in Dutch in Trouw, no date (between 1949 and 1956).

Published in English in M. Hengelaar-Rookmaaker (ed.): H.R. Rookmaaker:

The Complete Works 1, Piquant – Carlisle, 2003. Also obtainable as a CD-Rom.

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