Two Birds of one Feather

Hans WAP (Rotterdam 1943- Painter, Poet, Graphic artist Hans Wap trained at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Rotterdam Hans Wap is an important contemporary Dutch artist working from Rotterdam, where he also lives. His work characterises the man who is central and always searching within the hectic environment of contemporary existence. Hans Wap's visual language is so simple that some distrust may arise. Is this really art? Perhaps it makes more sense to ask: What strikes us in the primary symbolism of Indians, Aborigines and Papuans? Why has modern art been harking back to them since Picasso? The answer is simple: one is inundated with signs on the street. The more complicated the world, the stronger the need for simple visual symbolism. Hans Wap's linocuts recall primary prototypes, formed in childhood. Many planes appear in the work, planes that crash into a chair leg in the living room or the high-heeled shoes of the 'femme fatale'. Wap works a lot with linoleum; the aeroplane is the symbol of the journey Wap makes through the (new) material. Wap does not want to work completely abstract; there are always figurative elements in the work. He says he can express himself better figuratively. In the more recent work, besides the form, the coincidences involved in cutting into the linoleum are important. Wap does not put down ready-made things; there is room for fantasy. He creates abstract surfaces with strange shapes in them, which he believes the viewer can do a lot with. Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague Singer Museum, Laren Rabobank, Eindhoven Galleri Gamlebijen, Frederikstad Comes from the collection of the municipality of The Hague, The Netherlands.