INTRO
The Dutch Flag is a large art piece. I created it in 1995 while studying at the Art Academy in the Netherlands.
The complete art piece consisted of nine panels. All nine were oil paintings on self-prepared canvas.
Together they formed the Dutch Flag, a horizontal tricolor of red, white, and blue.
FRITS WATCHING TV (Red – Feyenoord)
Frits, a young caucasian male of around 23 years, is watching television with a bottle of beer in his hands. You can see the blue glow of the TV shining on him.
We can’t see what he is watching on TV. But we can see in the background of the painting the Feyenoord logo. Perhaps indicating he is watching a football match.
FOOTBALL
The art piece The Dutch Flag was an experimental-ish work. And a direct comment on Dutch culture. It started with the painting that (by chance) has survived it, Frits Watching TV (Red/Feyenoord).
But perhaps not only Dutch culture, since football is big business. My comment was on the fact that it is so massively followed and consumed and with extreme emotion. And I felt then I was not allowed to not like football. Since how can you NOT like football? Everybody loves football.
SEX & BEER
How can you not like sex? Everybody loves sex. Or how can you not like beer? Or how can you not like… (fill in the dots). Everybody likes… (fill in the dots). In other words, how can you not like what the majority likes? And therefore, I then dislike you. Or at least that is the vibe I then experienced and hindered me, to feel free. To know who am I and what do I like?
ART
And on the other side. I was doing art, so how could I depict Feyenoord, something related to the plebs? People seem to like to box themselves in. Perfect to me for an art piece showing the Dutch flag. Nicely exact ordered in horizontal red, white and blue stripes.
Yet then again, in a handprinted oil painting, the reds, the blue’s, and the whites are not the same. There are gradations and unevenness in the panels. So even the demarked red/whites/blue colors are not all the same. It is not all that perfectly exact neither.
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DIGITAL DOWNLOAD
After your payment, you receive a watermarked digital file which you can download immediately.
CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY
Both versions come with a Certificate of Authenticity to prove you have the legit version of this artwork made by artist Kim Engelen.
