Diederik Kraaijpoel, artist, author, March 2006
The paintings of Kees Thijn are symbolic works of art. The spectator can fill up the meaning of the symbolic works himself. The work merely consists of recognisable objects, such as a chess-man, a rusty nail or flowers, and all these items are painted directly from nature.
These objects have the purpose of letting us believe that everything happened for real in Kees Thijn’s paintings. They have to be painted in a very functional manner. Sometimes there is a fantasy object, but generally his art involves daily-life objects. Things are normal, but some are less normal than others. It is not the objects which are really deformed but the space around them is mysterious: it is fooling around with gravity, objects floating in the air, which they don’t do in real life. Kees always has the tendency to split up the sky just as a curtain does. The skies are often dark but they mainly serve to create space and let the objects contrast with the rest of the painting. This leaves a cheerful and playful impression on me. It has a certain kind of humour too.
The titles of the paintings do not teach us much about their meaning . The same happens with the symbolist Goya. Nowadays it is customary to look for the significance of such mysterious images in the private life of the artist , looking for a ‘bad habit’. The series of Kees’ china vases has a direct connection with the mental unrigging of his now-deceased wife. However, you don’t have to know the story to appreciate the paintings. The spectator has in fact no business with the artist. The work has to be able to stand on its own. These beautiful and fascinating works of art are functionally painted; to Kees this means precision painting. The enigmatic character of the images needs this too. Whenever you want to tell a story in symbolic art you have to resort to precision. Should the image be credible it has to be plastic, instantly comprehensible. Only when we see the possibility of ‘getting’ it and believe in the apple, pear, cock or eggshell, can we also believe in the rest of the constellation in which it takes place. We should be seduced by the objects to take the totality of the absurd images seriously. There has to be a harmony between purpose and means. It is almost the definition of professionalism, and that is the case with the works of Kees Thijn.
In addition to symbolic paintings and still lifes, Kees Thijn also paints portraits