Erik Van der Grijn

Dublin, David Hendriks Gallery, Erik Adriaan van der Grijn, 1974;
Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Erik Adriaan van der Grijn, 1999.

Catalogue colour comparison: The yellow tones are warmer and more vibrant than the illustration suggests. Structure: Original canvas. There are some minor scuff marks and surface dirt along the bottom edge otherwise in excellent original condition. Ultraviolet light analysis: There appear to be no signs of retouching. Unframed.
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After studying at the Royal College of Art in The Hague from 1959 - 1953, van der Grijn moved to Ireland in 1964 where he lived and worked for over twenty years.  During this crucial formative period, he developed the highly distinctive visual vocabulary of the present work. The combination of austere abstract form with sharp colour constrast highlighted his aim to 'create a rhythm comparable to that of a Sebastian Bach fugue' (van der Grijn, 2005) and he later coined the term Hard Edge Realism to describe his innovative style.

The dynamic pairing of cadmium yellow and dense black reccurs throughout the artist's oeuvre.  His interest in the specific tone of yellow stems from an early childhood memory of being knocked over by a van bearing an emblem of a dove on a bright cadmium yellow background. Since then, he has also been inspired by the use of the colour as a warning beacon on road sides and as such, by its property as a universal colour to attract attention. 

Van der Grijn has exhibited extensively internationally with solo shows at galleries such as the Hendriks Gallery, Dublin; Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires where he was the subject of a major retrospective in 1999.