Due to its success, the retrospective exhibition of Ans Markus in the Jan van der Togt Museum has been extended by three weeks: until 28 January 2018. The exhibition has so far attracted nearly 15,000 visitors.
Ans Markus examines the shadows of life in a striking way, including the recent series of paintings "hidden sadness" and "the pain of old." She also painted a series of youth portraits by Frida Kahlo and Modigliani, with which Markus expresses her admiration for her respected predecessors.
In addition, there is a wide selection of earlier work such as the sketches, drawings and smaller paintings, as well as sculptures in bronze and porcelain that Markus has been making for some years.
With this new side of her already so versatile artistry, she now, after a successful exhibition, attracted nearly 90,000 visitors to Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle. For the first time all creative expressions can be admired in one place.
PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT The art of Ans Markus (1947) forms a personal mythology, which encompasses its own world of thought, experience and feeling. A strong involvement with her fellow people is typical of Markus.
Her drawings, paintings and recently her sculptures in bronze and porcelain are the result of a thorough and ruthless self-examination, with which she gives a voice to broad living feelings, especially among women. In "the pain of old" her own mother plays the leading role. Markus uses intimate and tranquil images to tell about her mother's last life, which she spent in a nursing home. The portrait series "hidden sadness" is not about women but about men. The artist zooms in on men who carry worries and sorrows that the outside world knows nothing about. Their suffering prevents the men from showing their true faces.
ARTIST PORTRAITS Following on from her homage from the 1980s, Markus painted the youth portraits of Frida Kahlo, Egon Schiele, Paul Gaugain, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Amadeo Modigliani, Edward Hopper and Vincent van Gogh in her well-known realistic style between 2013 and 2015. In doing so, she asked herself whether these artists could already imagine in their youth what they would bring about with their art. To what extent is artistry a destiny? With a self-portrait as a girl, Markus also asks herself that question and puts herself through in one movement in the art-historical tradition of painters who take people as their point of departure in their work. Other homages to the exhibition include couturiers Christian Dior, Coco Chanel, Hubert de Givenchy, Yohjio Yamamoto, Vivien Westwood and Oscar de la Renta. There are also some portraits of famous Dutch people such as Arjan Ederveen, Freek de Jonge, Job Cohen and others and a selection from her impressive Medea cycle from the late '90s. Paintings from the magically realistic windmill series, with which Markus has managed to reach a large and loyal audience in recent decades, are also not missing in the Jan van der Togt Museum.
BRONZE IMAGES AND PORCELAIN A new aspect of the artistry of Ans Markus are the statues in bronze and small work in porcelain. She made images that have a strong affinity in terms of theme with her paintings. The physical aspect of kneading in the clay gave her the outlet she needed at the time. This resulted in a large number of bronze sculptures.
On all Sundays up to and including 28 January 2018, artist Ans Markus will be at Museum Jan van der Togt from 1 pm to 3 pm to show visitors around her exhibition. The boarding tours always take place at 2 p.m. From November 7, 2017, work by Markus will also be shown in the Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam.