Hennie Huijgens
Alongside my work as an artist, I’ve been active for many years as a scientific researcher and organisational consultant. I earned my PhD in computer science from TU Delft. I therefore also like to approach my art projects in a professional, research-oriented way, studying a question from different perspectives through triangulation. I like to call myself a ‘researching artist’.
"I love paint and colour"
I’m a visual artist with a strong preference for the material side of painting: I love paint and colour, and experimenting with canvases and mediums. I like working on larger canvases (linen) and generally use acrylic paint, experimenting with all kinds of mediums and gels to create effects such as glazing, gloss, transparency and thick surface textures. My examples in modern and contemporary art are the ‘real painting heroes’ of abstract expressionism, such as Willem de Kooning, Karel Appel and Mark Rothko. I also love the more figurative Flemish post-expressionist Roger Raveel and English painter David Hockney. More recently, I’ve found inspiration in the work of Marlene Dumas and Matthew Wong, and in Nan Goldin’s idea of art as a Gesamtkunstwerk, bringing together disciplines such as slideshows, music, voice-overs and archival material.
Coming in 2025: the Passages Project
The art project Passages, which I’m currently working on, is conceived as a Gesamtkunstwerk, combining painting, literature, music and podcasting in a single exhibition. In the exhibition’s opening painting, the artist looks searchingly at the visitor and poses the project’s unspoken central question: ‘What would you do?’
Passages is a layered, multidisciplinary artwork that brings different art forms together into a coherent whole. As viewers, listeners and readers, visitors are encouraged to reflect on life’s big questions, such as ‘What is truth and what is fiction?’ and ‘What position would I take?’
More coming soon...
“Really, Kors? Is that really what you think of me?” Mart leaned back in his patio chair and stretched his arms wide. His eyes were closed. “Just imagine the three of us sitting on the sofa in that beautiful loft of yours, Kors... You, Dixie and me... The doorbell rings, you open the door, and an impossibly beautiful space girl looks at you with smouldering eyes, while a gleaming spaceship hums behind her. ‘Hey, handsome, fancy a ride among the stars and the moon?’” He opened his eyes and looked Kors straight in the eye. “What would you do, Kors? Would you go? Get into that spaceship and set off for a new, unknown world? Isn’t that what artists do? Explore unknown worlds? Venture beyond horizons no one has ever crossed, in search of the truth? The meaning of life? Would you go, Kors? Or would you say, ‘I just need to grab my toothbrush...’ and sneak out through the back door?”
Excerpt from Ruimtemeisje, novel, 2023, Kors Anthony. The novel is the literary inspiration for the Passages Project.
AI podcast Snoek op Zolder