Kees Visser Lives and works between Haarlem, Paris and Reykjavik
BIOGRAPHY Born in 1948 (ND) Kees Visser belongs to the generation of artists who, in the way of John Armleder, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Allan Charlton, Adrien Schiess or Peter Halley in the 1980s, have had to grapple with the post-modernist heritage wherein the work of art, after being deconstructed and analysed in all its diverse forms, had to be reconstituted as a means of expression. Far from the artistic schools and movements that he has at any rate followed extensively, Kees Visser has gradually over the last forty years forged his path in a moreover autonomous manner. After having left his native Holland in the 1970s, where he had worked in the vein of the avant garde shifting between abstraction and Fluxus, he migrated to Iceland, where he has lived for almost twenty years in contact with an idea of nature that has profoundly marked his work. He has also been influenced by the incredibly cosmopolitan art scene in Reykjavik where such artists have crossed paths as Dieter Roth, Donald Judd, Richard Serra, Roni Horn, Hrein Fridffinson, Adian Schiess, Gunther Umberg, Richard Long, etc. Co-founder with a group of Icelandic artists of the Living Art Museum in Reykjavik in 1978, Kees Visser has become a major figure of the Icelandic art scene, his works included in most public and private collections of the country. Invited for a residency in Paris in the mid 1990s, it was in France that Kees Visser developed his idea of the series, the form, and color far enough to lead to the innovation of the monochromatic paintings that he is so known for today. Although they are created almost exclusively on paper, we find that the space in which they are exhibited has been progressively integrated into the reflection of the artist as a colourist. Expanding the possibilities of presentation and juxtaposition of his paintings, they are placed on the ceiling, on the wall or the floor, aligned on windows that span dozens of meters, or composed into mosaics. It is this same intuition for space that has led him to create public works in situ that take the form of large painted murals or monumental installations, as in his interventions in a chapel in Thouars (2006) or at the Saint Eustache Church in Paris (2007). The Matisse Museum in Le Cateau-Cambrésis gave him a retrospective exhibition in the summer of 2009. In 2012, the National Gallery of Iceland in conjunction with the Living Art Museum of Reykjavik presented two important exhibitions of Kees Visser. His works are in several international private and public collections (Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, National Gallery of Iceland, Living Art Museum in Reykjavik, MOMA in New York, Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
SELECTION OF SOLO SHOW Exhibition view at The Merchant House, Amsterdam, 2016
National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavík, view of the exhibition UPS & DOWNS, 2013
Exhibition view at Institut Néerlandais, Paris, 2013
Exhibition view at Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris, 2013
View of the exhibition La fabrique des possibles, FRAC PACA, Marseille, 2013
Exhibition view at Galerie Eric Linard, Garde Adhemar, 2011
Exhibition view at the Mondriaan House, Amersfoort, 2010
Exhibition view at Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris, 2009
Exhibition view at Hotel Missa, curated by Objet de Production, Paris, 2007
Exhibition view at Le Quartier - Centre d'art Contemporain, Quimper, 2007
View of the installation at Église St. Eustache, Paris, 2007 André Morin
View of the installation for the school group Godefroy Cavaignac, Paris, 2006 With the architecture agency Bernard Ropa André Morin
View of the exhibition at Centre d art de Bouvet, Ladubay, 2005
View of the exhibition at Galerie Philippe Pannetier, Nimes, 2001
SÉLECTION OF ARTWORKS Q-41, 2017 Awagami Bamboo 250 grs 75.8 x 55.5 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris Catalogue raisonné colors Ultamarine Blue Golden 1400 + Cobalt Blue Golden 1140 / Ultamarine Blue Golden 1400 + Brilliant Blue Light ARA A251
Q-49, 2017 Awagami Bamboo 250 grs 75.8 x 55.5 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris Catalogue raisonné colors Titanium White Golden 1380 (50X) + Neutral Grey N6 Golden 1446 (1X) Cadmium Red Light Lascaux 125 (4X) / Titanium White Golden 1380 (50X) + Neutral Grey N6 Golden 1446 (2X) + Cadmium Red Light Lascaux 125 (3X)
E-48, 2015 Paint on paper 214 x 142 cm Thijs Quispel Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi
Mondlicht #30, 2013 Paper weaves 18,5 cm x 23 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris
Mondlicht #2, 2013 Paper Weaves 18,5 cm x 23 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris
Mondlicht #2, 2013 Paper weaves 18,5 cm x 23 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris
Wallpainting ( Linard), 2011 4 drawings on cardboard, gouache and pencil on paper 68 x 76 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi
Bloem #249 Print on Hannemuhle paper, pasted on dibond 97,5 x 103 cm Edition of 3 Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi
H-61, 2010 Paint on paper, pasted on dibond 100 x 135 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris
Few, 2009 Palette E & F Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris
N-64, 2007 Painting on paper 39,5 x 54,5 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris Thijs Quispel
V 27 28 (extract of the catalogue raisonné), 2003 Painting on paper Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris
Six Lines, 1992 54,5 x 39,5 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris Thijs Quispel
Untitled (proto), 1992 54,5 x 39, 5 cm Gouache on paper Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris Thijs Quispel
The Sum (maquette), 1991 54,5 x 39, 5 cm Gouache on paper Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris Thijs Quispel
Untitled, 1990 54,5 x 39, 5 cm Gouache on paper Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris Thijs Quispel
Barnarúm, 1988 Mixt technics 87 x 67,5 x 126,5 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris
Untitled, 1983 65 x 50 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris Thijs Quispel
Poet, 1982 Paper weaves 67 x 51,5 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris Philippe Bernard
Tressage 3 t, 1979 Paper weaves 15,3 x 20 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris
Le Mariage du hollandais et de l islandais, 1977 Weaving books, 19 x 12,5 cm Collection Steidelijk Museum, Amsterdam Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi
Defined or Devined, 1977 73,5 x 102 cm Gouache on paper Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris Thijs Quispel
Itiswhat, 1975 Gouache on paper 65 x 50 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris Thijs Quispel
Sans titre (cube Painting), 1973 Acrylic on canvas, six panels, metal hinges 245 x 105 cm Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi
Synapse, 1973 102 x 73,5 cm Gouache on paper Courtesy Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris Thijs Quispel