Koen Vermeule (1965)
Koen Vermeule is an artist who builds his oeuvre around selected themes – the landscape, the horizon, the effect of light and shadow, he has painted them all innumerable times. Vermeule belongs to the generation of artists who, coming up during the nineteen nineties, chose the 'old-fashioned' medium of oil paint.
Vermeule's Amsterdam workshop looks out onto a playground, full of lively, active children, and this is his primary source of inspiration. The artist first studies the moment he wants to isolate on the canvas in a series of sketches. These urban snapshots are focused on gesture and the presence of human figures. For a long time, alongside these urban images Vermeule also painted wide open landscapes – empty fields full of broken clay soil, outstretched horizons, all devoid of human figures - but since 2005, the painter has moved the two genres together. He reserves a starring role for light and shadow. In 2002, the Fries Museum presented an exhibition of the artist's work entitled 'September Light' - for Vermeule, the most spectacular, most theatrical light in the Netherlands. 'When the sun comes out and you get those long shadows, that's when things look as real as they get.'* This is exactly what Vermeule depicts in his current work.
* q.v., ‘Stadspleinen en landschappen van Koen Vermeule’, 2002, Fries Museum Krant, p. 7
