Intermezzo, Ink drawing by Henk van der Ploeg (1949)
Original ink drawing by Dutch artist Henk van der Ploeg (1949). In the original frame with labels at backside.
Through drawing and painting lessons at the evening academy, he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Arnhem (the forerunner of ArtEZ), which he completed in 1979. He later took a lithography course in Salzburg. In addition to being a painter and lithographer, he was also a writer of prose and poetry, and a lecture artist.
Van der Ploeg has painted a lot in his immediate living environment. For example, he has made many paintings of the previous NS- station and of views from his studio. You then look out on the Amsterdamseweg (intersection Brouwerijweg/Bakenbergseweg) and against the backs of houses on the Van Eckstraat, Van Lawick van Pabststraat and Burgemeester Weertsstraat. In the beginning he painted the window frames of his studio, later only the views filled his paintings.
They ex wash out an atmosphere of intimacy and security according to Kunstcentrum De Gele Rijder, which once organized a sales exhibition. Some of the painted views no longer exist at all, others have changed radically. That gives the paintings some architectural-historical value. It is limited because Van der Ploeg does not paint photographically.
Through his choice of color and omission of human beings, he not only manages to evoke an atmosphere of intimacy and security, but also to give the everyday an alienating context. In this way, the loner stands in the world that confuses him, he manages to find his way in the labyrinth that is existence and to wallpaper the gloomy rooms of the human mind with a cheerful design.