Exhibition 'Gestileerde emoties. Abstracties in acryl van Henny Leuven'

Name: Exhibition 'Gestileerde emoties. Abstracties in acryl van Henny Leuven'
Start: 2024-05-04T11:00:00
End: 2024-05-04T17:00:00
Location: Museum Sjoel

Where:
Museum Sjoel

When:
until 4 May

Museum Sjoel
Graaf Hendriksteeg 2
8081 CH Elburg

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From February 10 to May 4, 2024, Museum Sjoel Elburg presents the exhibition 'Stylized emotions. Abstractions in acrylic by Henny Leuven'. With his abstractions, Henny Leuven expresses personal feelings about the Jewish past, present and future. Leuven's work can be seen by the public for the first time.

Henny Leuven (1945) grew up in the Netherlands, but left for Israel in the 1960s. He has now lived in the Netherlands for a long time. A few years ago he spontaneously started painting. He was inspired by the Israeli sculptor and painter Menashe Kadishman (1932-2015).

'My paintings are emotions' Leuven made countless pa…

'My paintings are emotions' Leuven made countless paintings. He said he threw most of it away, but he kept the work into which he had poured his soul. 'What I saw in my dreams, what I felt and what happened. When I paint, I am in another world. I listen to music by Dylan and Cohen. I have a strong emotional connection with what I paint. My paintings are emotions.'

Method The content of Leuven's abstracted memories concerns the fate of the Jewish people and Judaism in general. The design is characterized by a stylized method: the shapes of the depicted are adapted to simplified basic forms. The painting style in acrylic on canvas is extremely precise and apparently emotionless – which makes the work powerful.

Elburg On the canvas 'Elburg', Henny Leuven depicts the parallel development of the Jewish community and Elburg throughout history in Dutch and Hebrew letters. Motifs reflect both regional costume and a Jewish tallit. A gray-white stripe symbolizes concentration camp clothing, the two yellow blocks indicate the mandatory Star of David in the Second World War. The colors in the Elburg letters become light again after the Second World War. In the Hebrew letters they become increasingly darker, after all, only a few survived the Holocaust. With the half-rising Star of David, the artist sends a message, as if there is still a future for Jews in Elburg, as if the artist hopes that things can one day return to the way they were. That half star is symbolic, because you must keep hope for the future, and cherish hope that there is life for the Jewish community, not only in Elburg but everywhere in the world.

Exception for Museum Sjoel Elburg An art expert from Amsterdam saw more in Henny Leuven's work than that of an amateur. Yet Henny Leuven has chosen not to go public with his stylized emotions. He makes an exception for Museum Sjoel Elburg and twenty works are made available to the public for the first time.