09 April 2012
to
20 May 2012
'Relating with God' Art Exhibition - Anneke Kaai
A Series of 15 Paintings from the series 'Relating with God' in the South West Transept.
About the Artist:
Anneke Kaai-van Wijngaarden (b.1951) was born in Naarden in the Netherlands and grew up in a Christian family. Her parents recognized her artistic talents at an early age and encouraged her on leaving school to attend the Gooise Academie, where she studied painting, drawing and sculpting in the classical tradition. During the 1960s and '70s she continued her fine arts studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Those were turbulent years when the 'God is dead' theology gained popular support, also among her fellow students. Anneke, who experiences God as very much alive, felt compelled to express that living faith in her work. As a result, she often chooses to paint biblical themes. For her, an artist’s work shows what lives in his or her heart. At the Rietveld Academy, classical techniques were frowned upon and she had to learn to work in a contemporary way, using contemporary materials and different techniques. She discovered stylization and abstraction. Today Anneke works mostly in acrylics on Plexiglas and freely incorporates other media; she also uses a variety of tools to create her unique effects. Her 'Psalms' series, for example, includes abstract works as well as more representational ones, whereas all the paintings in her 'Relating to God' series are abstract works in strong colours. Her style is best described as 'abstract symbolic', because colours and shapes are given particular symbolical meanings. Anneke is always conscious of her dependence on God. He is her primary Source of inspiration. In recent years, as her work has become known around the world through her publications, exhibition and lectures, she has had opportunities to contribute to a bridging of the divide that has existed for so many centuries between large sections of the Church and the visual arts. Above all, it is her hope that her paintings will encourage viewers to meditate, discuss … and to pray.
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