Ipswich artist Ian Friend has made abstract paintings and prints on paper for decades often inspired by poetry. For him, abstract images and poetry share elusive qualities.

“The message is not spelt out,” he says. “You’ve got to do some work—and think about why a line, a patch of colour or a word triggers a particular emotion.”

An etching made by Dutch artist Anton Heyboer (1924-2005), recently acquired by Friend, triggered a new series of work and led him to probe the opacity of meaning and the impact of individual choice. This has resulted in his exhibition The Dutch Wives, now showing at Jan Manton Gallery in Teneriffe.

Anton Heyboer (1924-2005) had a life troubled by mental illness but he found stability within an unconventional arrangement. He was a diagnosed schizophrenic, and after three failed marriages he established a commune named Den Ilp where he gathered four wives around him and their care prevented his institutionalisation later in life. Two of his wives continue to live there, operating their home as a museum of his work.

The etching Friend acquired draws figurative elements together with handwriting and symbols.

“The paper he uses is the same that I use, and the dimensions are the same,” Friend says. “I worked out how he made it and started working in a similar way. It has taken me out of my own rituals, and I’ve appropriated his earth colours – they are stronger than those I usually use.”

The Dutch Wives #1 creates Heyboer as a central circular motif, surrounded by four circular elements that tail out to the edges of the paper, as though protective. They overlay large smudges of colour with a mottled landscape of loosely circular shapes. The Dutch Wives #2 has a horizontal central band of marks that retain a level of translucency to the paper. The motifs representing the four wives’ range around another circle of tiny spots, as though each defines a discrete area of interest or responsibility. The Dutch Wives #3 is messy, the paper dots having become splotchy, with the surface of the paper almost entirely covered.

Den Ilp is also enigmatic, with a sophisticated spatial awareness, and varieties of circular elements connected by horizontal lines that come together, unexpected yet cohesive.

There is another level of meaning to the title, with a human-sized bolster pillow made of bamboo also known as ‘the Dutch wife’ (a reference to the reputation of women from The Netherlands – and their purported level of responsiveness).

“It’s just occurred to me that The Dutch Wives work may raise questions about Heyboer’s life choices,” Friend notes. “But if anyone can work out a system of getting through without doing much damage to anyone else, then it’s hard to criticise. Heyboer did not have the kind of life most would opt for – he spent serious time in institutions at times. There may have been a manipulative or coercive element to his situation with the women. I’m thinking about the ramifications of that but if the work raises those questions, it perhaps gives it even more power.”

This group differs to other works in the exhibition, which are inspired by Spanish composer Federico Moupou and filmmaker Victor Erice. A cooler palette and sensibility with greater openness explores Friend’s responses to artists from one of his favourite countries.

“The way I work involves a lot of chance, but also imposes a sense of geometry and structure that is imposed, elements that draw the whole thing together”.

In The Dutch Wives series there is an earthy grounded quality with Friend’s unerring spatial instincts remaining at the fore. Their narrative, and the attention lent to art from the past, builds on a strength of vision that is fresh and thought-provoking.

The Dutch Wives: Ian Friend / Anton Heyboer

Until July 6, Jan Manton Gallery, 54 Vernon Terrace, Teneriffe, Brisbane

janmantonart.com

 

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