Daan van Golden (1936)
For Daan van Golden, the dividing line between life and art does not exist. He sees happenstance as a powerful force that helps him find new images in the existing world. The ideas for Van Golden's work are found in everyday things, like a piece of printed packing paper, peeling paint on a garage door, an image of Buddha or Mick Jagger, or a patch of violets. Ordinary sights that, upon a closer look, prove to have a powerful visual impact. But reproductions of works by Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti or Jackson Pollock can also be the starting point for a real Van Golden. He calls the discoveries that inspire him to new work his ‘vitamins,’* which he transforms into original, never-before-seen paintings.
Another theme in Van Golden's work is the struggle to visualise the riddle of time through photography. In his photographs, we see people growing old, environments changing, colours shining. And sometimes, right in the middle, another little discovery that the artist takes back to the canvas – where timelessness holds sway.
* H. Den Hartog Jager, Verf, 2004 Amsterdam, p. 58
