René Daniëls (1950)
René Daniëls is one of the best-known and most prominent painters of the nineteen eighties. He has been shown in major international exhibitions and has influenced many other artists, especially artists of the younger generation. At the end of the nineteen seventies, in an art world dominated by abstract and conceptual art, Daniëls turned to representational paintings. His imaginative images are meant to misdirect and trick the viewer.
Daniëls toys with image and language, as can be seen in the titles of his paintings, which give a mocking commentary on the world of art and the world around us: Palais des Beaux-aards (playing on the homonym of beaux-arts and boosaards, malevolent people), Memoires van een vergeetal ('Memoirs of a forgetful person') or De geamuseerde Muze ('The amused muse'). His work always focuses on the ambiguity of reality – there is always more than meets the eye.
After a brain haemorrhage in 1987, his output ceased. All the paintings and drawings that were in his workshop at the time are administered by the René Daniëls Foundation. Daniëls' paintings at times seem to be an extension of his drawings. He preferred to work in sketch style, which allowed him to get the most levels of meaning across. And he admired this permanent search for new possibilities in the work of artists like Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia and Marcel Broodthaers.
