That's the way it is
90 x 90 cm
1996
“A Meta-painting is a painting giving shape to such a complex creative expression, that this expression let’s itself only be understood in a very slow way.
What makes this expression so complex is the fact that the many phenomena getting together in it, are all accompanied by their absolute counterpart.
Yes, a Meta-painting is always dead serious – at least as dead serious as the paintings of Mark Rothko… But each Meta-painting is also always ultimately playful – at least as playful as the works of Paul Klee…
Yes, each Meta-painting shows a very warm empathy. But this empathy is seamlessly going together with an icy distance next to which the sovereignty of the neoplastic paintings of Piet Mondrian seems a refreshing morning breeze.
When someone says that Meta-paintings are often so extravert, so into your face, he is quite right. But someone looking just that little bit longer will notice that this huge extraversion is always accompanied by a just as overpowering introversion.
Meta-paintings are often outrageous, but just as down to earth as well. Totally inaccessible, but still entirely open.
And I could still go on this way for quite some time.”
From the chapter What is a Meta-painting? 1,
from the book Meta-art
by Mick van Schooneveld
