The Surrealistic Theatre - The Magical World of Hans Kanters
From 30 October 2020 until 21 March 2021, Museum JAN will be presenting the exhibition The surrealistic theatre – The magical world of Hans Kanters. The surrealistic artist Hans Kanters marvels the audience with his dream landscapes filled with fantastic creatures, painted with great precision and craftsmanship. The exhibition provides a comprehensive overview of the unique body of works of Hans Kanters.
An egg sticking out its tongue.
Dream landscapes. Visions. Delusions. All of them depict scenes that are hard to believe, although they are still credible. That is because you see them, with your own eyes. A table flying through the air, an egg sticking out its tongue, a caterpillar with a woman's buttocks. It is a truly magical world that Hans Kanters (1947) presents to his audience. Disturbing, mysterious, humorous, and erotic. Nothing in Kanters’ art is what it seems to be. The metamorphosis is endless. People become animals, animals turn into objects and objects become people again. Anything is possible and everything is allowed. All in line with the painter's motto: “the artist celebrates freedom".
A self-taught painter
Hans Kanters has been presenting his surrealistic theatre for fifty years now. For a long time, he lived and worked on Ibiza, but nowadays the Netherlands is his home again. Born in Amsterdam, the self-taught artist became popular for his painted fantasies in the early 1970s. Not inhibited by fashions, traditions, or dogma’s, he chose his own path from the start. This does not mean that he is the only surrealist in Dutch art history. Kanters personally feels indebted to the Dutch painters Melle and Carel Willink. Internationally, there is a relationship with artists like Salvador Dalí and Max Ernst.
Works from private collections
The exhibition at Museum JAN in Amstelveen is the first major retrospective dedicated to the works of Hans Kanters. Due to his unconventional style, he has so far been noticed mainly by private collectors. Museum founder Jan van der Togt was an avid collector of Kanters’ works and started commissioning works in the early 1990s. With more than fifty paintings, as well as a selection of drawings and sculptures, from the 1970s to today, The Surrealistic Theatre – The magical world of Hans Kanters offers a comprehensive overview of a body of art that is fascinating as well as enigmatic. The unbridled imagination of Hans Kanters encourages us, the viewers, to fantasise in the same manner.