ARTIST STATEMENT ROMBOUT OOMEN, JULY 2011

The artworks I create are an expression of how I see the world around me. Geo-politics and human behaviour in a (Western)society interests me very much. The form of my artwork originates from an ever growing archive of newspaper and internet photographs. Photographs which I find interesting usually have some link with the compositions of the period of ‘Enlightenment’. In my work I regenerate those pictures to a personal expression of my rational and inner vision.

The title of the artwork is an intellectual statement of the idea. The actual painting is an inner one.
Therefore the painting and the title complement each other.

The inner, individualistic vision is fully “free” to express whatever needs to be expressed and how it needs to be expressed. To conceive a successful work of art one must work from ones own inner vision, in order to execute the idea as bold as possible; without intellectual obstruction and without limitation of any kind.
Without this comprehension for me, the artist, painting is merely a technical matter.

Conclusion
The creation of an artwork stems from an inner, individualistic vision by means of a technique (for me: painting), as much as possible unhindered by intellectual concepts.
That is how I experience art and painting.

Rombout Oomen, July 2011