»Ruud van Empel«. By Maren Kirchhoff and Kai Brückner. Translated by Maria Russo

Ruud van Empel, born in 1958 in Breda,The Netherlands, studied from 1976 to 1981 at the Academy of Fine Arts Sint Joost, Breda. In the first years after art school he worked as a graphic designer before commencing with his autonomous art work in 1986. Between 1989 and 1995 he was involved as art director in film and television productions, for this he was awarded the Charlotte Köhler Prize in 1993. In 2001 he received the H.N. Werkman Award for this autonomous photographic work spanning the period from 1993 to 2001.

"Picturing Eden", a group show at the George Eastman House in Rochester, NewYork and "Perfection/Imperfection", a solo show at the Stefan Stux Gallery in New York City will be Ruud van Empel's first exhibitions in the United States; both will be opening in January 2006.

Ruud van Empel lives and works in Amsterdam.

In creating his photo-montages, the Dutch artist Ruud van Empel has always used a variety of technical mediums for his compositions; up until 2004 he worked alternately with photos, scanned objects or pictures cut from printed matter. Today he almost exclusively uses photographs as collage elements, assembling the trees, flowers, leaves, animals and other figures into artificial landscapes on the computer screen.
Van Empel developed this working method in 1996 when he created his first series "The Offices" - a clear reference to his early involvement as a set designer in television productions. The collage-like composition of each single "Office" reminds one of a television studio set; in which the personages are placed passively behind a work table in a room that only appears to be three-dimensional. At this stage, scanned objects, photos and newspaper pictures formed the basic material for developing his stage-like arrangements. With these images the artist prefers to focus on a well-organized, harmonious composition, presenting the picture as a whole, a place in which that person's fate and character is determined only through this somewhat passive interaction with the motifs and objects surrounding them, and not on a life-like representation according to accepted standards of proportion and perspective.

Such a computer-assisted production process, which can be compared simply to "sampling techniques" in music-production, is a new phenomenon in the history of art and has no direct reference to any historical forms of collage making. On the contrary - this production process itself has turned into a model for the work of some contemporary artists.
Van Empel's computer-manipulated landscapes, however, find their origins in the paintings of what is called "Naïve Realism". By playing with stylistic methods such as shifting proportions, lighting and detailed drawing techniques, he aims at compiling well-balanced compositions. Just like the paintings of the naïve painters of this school, his picture worlds, in essence, appear full of peace, harmony and beauty. In his most recent series "World", van Empel again chooses nature as a backdrop and in this way continues the theme from his series "Study in Green", which was realized in 2003. Even though, in both series of work, the thick forests are composed of different singlular pieces, they seem to have grown naturally - having harmonious as well as magical scenery - which in turn awakens one's association with the paintings of the "Naïve Realists", in particular, Henri Rousseau's late virgin forest pictures. The structure of van Empel's images is based on the concept of 'Great Realism' proclaimed by Wassily Kandinsky. Arranged behind acrylic glass, his cibachrome prints produce an effect of unequalled three-dimensional quality. Things look extremely solid and thus, give the impression of being very present. In doing so, the artist imparts great genuineness to the objects presented in his pictures. The juxtaposition of a hyper-realistic representation of motifs and objects and the obvious collage structure of the images, emphasizing the character of a synthetic composition, creates a force-field between reality and illusion similar to the mysterious atmosphere of a fairy tale.

This effect becomes particularly clear in the single-theme forest motifs of the "Study in Green" series. Even without a human being present, the atmosphere of the empty and open stretches of thick forest is particularly mysterious and spooky, arousing an infinite curiosity to see what is concealed behind the trees.
Van Empel follows a traditional approach in photography when he presents his work in series.
This consecutive presentation of images appears to compose a narrative tale; with this method he effectively increases the impact the art works have on the viewer. Moreover, in the series "Study in Green" or "World", the effect on the viewer as they vacillate from one image to another, being on the one hand drawn into the enticing mysterious-looking forests and on the other hand captured by the child looking straight at the viewer, is unsettling and nearly confrontational.

Depending on the figures represented in van Empel's images - adults ("Offices"), women ("Naarden Studies"), babies ("Babies") or children ("Study in Green", "Neighborhood" and "World") - one begins to make associations with various subjects, which then to a certain degree become clear as one contemplates the details of the décor. Europe's hypocritical, harmony-addicted post-war society (white socks and dresses), gene technology (babies), petty-bourgeois narrow-mindedness ("Neighborhood") or a two-class world society and globalization (black children wearing sport clothes) are the themes that constitute breaches in the paradise-like pictures of his "primeval natures" and provide the connection to reality. Choosing children - a motif which reappears in all of van Empel's series as leitmotif - in order to deal with the topics mentioned above may seem rather strange. But thinking back on the history of art and photography some examples may certainly be found in Velasquez' "Las Meninas" or Diane Arbus' "Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park".

By juxtaposing graveness and an adult's burden of real life in the image of a child - synonym for security, innocence and a naïve view of the world - van Empel underlines the tensions of reality. It is as if they want to invite the public to grapple with the subject presented, the children in van Empel's photographs peer at the viewer with great seriousness. Amidst a water landscape covered with water lilies, reeds, great leaves and vines one recognizes a child, his head floating, seemingly unattached, looking straight at the viewer, returning their look with big, shy eyes. But no matter how much the child's gaze might attract the viewer's attention it then becomes absorbed in the blaze of colors and quasi-natural complex shape of his entourage. Just as in the image "World # 5", children are often placed into profuse and opulent jungle forests where they remain serious and silent but not frightened at all, making the innocence of the child appear both sweet and disturbing.
In looking at Ruud van Empel's work this way, serious contemplation of the images creates tension, which stimulates and inspires us to actively and with great sensitivity reflect upon these thematic complexities. Unlike the work of the artist Loretta Lux van Empel has a broader spectrum concerning subject matter, this is especially apparent in the complexity of his technique and the inherent content of his works. The artist Ruud van Empel lives, wide-eyed, alert in the present moment.