ICAR-Paris presents an exhibition of Dutch painter Rens Lipsius (b. 1960 in Soest, the Netherlands). The artist responsible for the conception of the ICAR-Paris space, Lipsius has collaborated with other participants in ICAR's recent Art/Research 2000 Program. The main theme of Art/Research 2000 - an exploration of possible conjunctions of the work of art and space - is closely linked to Lipsius' vision of space that comes from his painting: "I am most interested in the work's physical relation to the surrounding space… The space of thinking. The space of working. Every space has its material, its light, its solitude. Infinite space. A given space."

At the core of the exhibition is Large Standing Figures and Abstract Panels, a recent group of

Rens Lipsius
From the series of Large
Standing Figures and
Abstract Panels,
1999 – 2002
244 x 122 cm each panel

paintings that were made in Lipsius' studio in New York. They form an open series of over 50 individual panels shown together for the first time along with earlier polyptychs. The site-specific installation also includes photography, digital art, and objects. To Lipsius, "what is of interest is what one can still do with a canvas, brush, knife and paint." He uses photography and video "to contrast a different, more direct way of representation." The aim is both to demonstrate and dismantle the complicity between the recorded image and painting.

Thematically, the work explores light as it shapes spaces and landscapes. Conceptually, it explores painting as it shapes contemporary art. Lipsius' experimentation with real spaces is evoked in his paintings in endlessly inventive ways. In addition to the design of ICAR-Paris he has recently worked with landscape in the Netherlands, where he delineated a rectangular grass field by planting trees to provide an "observation field for light changes." The idea of a rectangular field with trees as a sort of frame can be traced to sketches and notes he has made over the years. Lipsius shows the recorded photographic and video images on small (4 in. x 6 in.) screens alongside painting to mark and re-mark the color green that he never paints.

The panels - which Lipsius sees as "unfolding spaces" - explicitly involve "all conceivable ways of working with paint" and blur the distinction between the figurative and the abstract. Lipsius works with both the classical and contemporary mediums, and enjoys turning them inside out. Further breaking with the protocols of pure painting, he uses his studio equipment, even the windows and walls, as the source and the means of artistic production, providing material and light for his work. The accumulation of material -- figurative and abstract, painterly and non-painterly -- and the play of panels allow for, in Mallarmé's words, "the infinite chance of conjunctions … to be read."

Lipsius is an autodidact who converted his early fascination with nature, natural history and related subjects to research experimentation with camera and brush in the late seventies. While working in Paris, Friesland (the Netherlands) and New York over the past two decades, he has directed the course of his production to escape the control of a traditional focus on individual works and demonstrate in practice his approach to art as a total oeuvre.

Set against the background of the Art/Research 2000 Program (January 2000 - April 2002), this exhibition will be accompanied by concert performances and other related events to be announced.

For information and programs, please contact ICAR-Paris.