Rien van Uitert

Rien van Uitert

Rien is one of the finest of what is called in Holland 'Fijnschilders'. He works his way towards his horizon with patience and skill, recreating worlds of his own, which on the face of it look as real as could be, but if you go out to look for them, they are actually not to be found. They are real as far as their dimensions, perspective and composition go. They are even hyperreal as far as their possible existence of the elements inhabiting them go, but they come out of a mind, putting together a parallel nature.
Rien pays unique attention to the most minute components, be it a little screw here, a scrap of paint there, texture of objects, big and small, their changing tones, light flakes scattered around. He observes and shows the most intimate and hidden part, almost a molecule, lying in shadows of towers, windmills, machines of all sorts, walls of gardens and houses, moss plucking onto surfaces of things. His worlds project the will to recreate, to shape up diligently things he loves, to whom he is responsive and responsible.
And it is 'mostly' a silent world: seldom do you find people there. His artworks are worlds which are here for you to watch from a point outside it, located in the mind of their creator, worlds you shouldn't disturb, whose elements are borrowed from out there, a sort of Dasein, which being is its issue. There are places usually open to their horizon, their skies; some lonely introvert houses full enigma, trees harbouring secrets, dogs. In essence-inside worlds, worlds of the inner eye, in fact poems, having the character of legends, little silent sagas, maybe telling about far away childhood days , all painted with endless care and patience, ``recollections in tranquility`` of the romantic period ' Rien worlds. And since the most important quality of an artwork is its authenticity, married to a meaningful composition, which is an order of elements ``standing despite all possibility to fall`` , it is necessarily a piece of nature which at best shows its maker.
Rien`s works-worlds show him in his uniqueness, for they are him.'
Asaph Ben-Menahem