Abundance / A Horn of Plenty 2004 - 2006
Text by Ernest Van Buynder, President of the Museum of Contemporary Art MuHKA Antwerp

Ever since the eighties and nineties Richard Bouwman has been getting his inspiration from world literature, classical mythology and painting itself to give form to his image of the world and of Humankind. The poetic oeuvre by the French poète maudit Arthur Rimbaud gave the impetus to a brilliant series of paintings, drawings and graphic work, which he showed a.o. in 1997 under the title “La chasse spirituelle” in the Musée Arthur Rimbaud at Charleville- Mézières - the place in the French Ardennes where the poet was born. On this occasion a catalogue was published. On large canvases and in works on paper, the painter Richard Bouwman formulates his own individual reply to the power of imagination of the great poet. To both artists, painting and literature are a way to represent human life, to formulate a contemplation on ‘humanitas’, happiness and human failure. Richard Bouwman’s engagement with and closeness to Rimbaud were profound, to the extent that, after completing this cycle, he wrote a short, beautiful poetic text in French: “Hypnos”, departing from a phrase by the French poet (Illuminations /Antique). Rimbaud is known not to eschew mythological or mystical images. In his cycle of works “The garden of Hypnos”, realised between 2002 and 2003, Bouwman explored the mythical gardens of Hypnos more thoroughly. Hypnos is the personification of Sleep.Richard Bouwman referred through the Greek world of gods to sleep and dream; and now in the cycle “Abundance” to plenitude, wine, pleasure. Actually the cycle “Abundance”, or plenitude, is a logical sequel to “Hypnos”. And here, too, the painter falls back on Greek-Roman Antiquity. In the visual arts “abundance” is the representation of plenitude by a female figure, presented as a goddess. I refer to the painting Abundance XXII, with the text The Nymph of the Vine. The titles of his actual works refer to gods or concepts that incarnate abundance. Next to “Abundance” there is first and foremost the Greek god Dionysus, the god of wine and of budding nature life. He is the son of Zeus and Semele, nursed by the nymphs of the mythical island of Nysa. His spouse is Ariadne. He travels around the world with satyrs and Bacchantes. Through viniculture and civilisation he brought to the world prosperity, but he also punished with death or insanity whoever derided his person or his cult. At his feasts in Athens theatre competitions were organized, with the participation of plays by writers such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. The Dionysian is everything that is moved by ecstasy and exuberance, and it is the opposite of the Apollonian: the balanced, the controlled, the harmonious. In the days of Rubens the motif of satyrs and Bacchantes was very popular, hence his predilection for that subject. In Roman times Bacchus was totally identified with Dionysus. He was worshipped with wild processions devoted to his honour. “Hèdonè” is the Greek word for pleasure, lust. Hedonism is the doctrine maintaining that pleasure is the highest goal in life, that humankind has to pursue the gratification of sensual desires. “Sacred vine” refers to the holy function of wine. “Oinotropoi” literally means: women who were able to change water into wine. Anios was a son of Apollo who through the god’s intercession became a prophet and a priest-king on Delos. He foresaw that the Greeks would only be in a position to capture Troy in the tenth year of the war, and offered them hospitality until then. They were going to be taken care of by his three daughters: Oino, Spermo, and Elais. Dionysus had given them the gift to change water into wine and whatever they wanted into grain and olives. However, the Greeks declined. “Myrionymos” means “with countless names”, as Aphrodite is sometimes called. Seven works on paper are entitled “Elixir”. This is a strong extract with allegedly supernatural powers. The elixir of life was the potion that was capable of prolonging life. At first sight, one notices a predominance of floral and vegetal shapes – bunch of grapes, grape leaf, grapevine – in the new cycle by Richard Bouwman, an imagery which ultimately refers to nature, but one rather quickly realises that one deals with mental landscapes which refer to abundance, dreams, sleep, intoxication, the enigmatic, the intoxicating forces of nature... One is never confronted with an absolute autonomy of form and of colour in his new works, for they are heavy with traces of organic forms. In the vertical structures we see even anthropomorphic forms. Man as a being which remains within the reign of nature, an eternal challenge to everything cultural and spiritual. According to me, it is difficult to catalogue Richard Bouwman within the constraints of a specific style. His recent work is of far too great a complexity to do so. However, in his most recent realisations, there are some elements which steer our interpretation. First and foremost, there is the well-considered merging of figuration and abstraction. Besides, to artists of his generation, the conflict between abstract and figurative has become a non-issue. Furthermore, his technical mastery is clearly discernable, yet does not take over. Additionally, there is also the refreshing interplay of improvisation and painting freely, on the one hand, and erudition, nourished by his inspiration from mythology, on the other hand. In keeping with myth and the epos, fundamental questions are being raised with regard to human existence. The painter has shown great interest in Surrealism. No doubt Richard Bouwman has borrowed some of the elements of the ‘écriture automatique’ - automatic writing- from the technical vocabulary of Surrealism: it comes to the fore in the calligraphic interpretation of the image and in the swift combination of verbal and visual elements in his paintings and drawings, but also when he tests the strategies of chance. Some further comments on word and idea are in order. Many terms used by the artist on paintings and drawings refer to blue grape varieties, eminently suitable for viniculture. Thus France cherishes the “grenache” in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the “mourvèdre” in the Roussillon region, the “gamay” in the Beaujolais area, the “syrah” along the Rhône, and the “carignan” in the Midi. Italy boasts even more poetical names: the “negroamaro” in Southern Italy and the “sangiovese” in Tuscany. It is a homage to the great variety of the grape, the source of all wine. The intensity of colour is also surprising, the use of intense colours, at times transparent, from raw umber and purple to deep brown and dark red, sometimes highlighted by bright colours. He obtains this effect by painting with acrylic on canvas or with acrylic on canvas with collage. He also uses gouache and crayon on paper, or gouache and crayon on paper with collage. Sometimes he mixes acrylic and crayon on cotton and canvas. Also on a formal level, a free technique is used to work in the direction of ambiguity. Consequently, his work is not a closed, self-contained whole, it can evolve in other directions: the contemporary concept of a ‘work in progress’. Richard Bouwman’s latest work can indubitably be considered as being of great relevance within the context of new painting from the eighties until the present day. He has certainly found his own niche within this eclectic approach to painting.


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