Labyrinths of Love, "About the Work of Edward Bekkerman," Prof. Dr. Irene Daum, Düsseldorf, 2022, pp. 13-15
About the work of Edward Bekkerman
As an artist, Edward Bekkerman is interested in the primal, archaic, invisible. His inspiration comes from the spiritual, an openness to experience and an intense preoccupation with the power of symbols. His works are not a window on reality, they reflect a subjective experience with all senses. His art represents a visual world whose exploration invites reflection and inspires the viewer's imagination and fantasy.
Edward Bekkerman's art stands for creative work beyond established trends and for multifaceted, universal motifs. It is an expression of the ideas and conceptions of an independent mind and the product of a continuous reflection, condensation and renewal of the themes that move him. This is reflected in recurring motifs and the prominent importance of symbols that have characterized his artistic work since the 1990s. The mysterious and to be deciphered makes the attraction of his work.
The paintings live from the interplay of figurative and abstract elements, dynamically placed, expressive color accents and the use of a broad color palette, which are linked to a wide variety of feelings and emotions. As a whole, the work represents a free flow of expressive images, with thematic allusions that oscillate between dream and reality. Imaginations, memories, past and present interact. Nothing is as it may appear at first glance.
Edward Bekkerman's work reflects his own roots and inner world. Enigmatic compositions unite human and human-like beings. The atmosphere of the pictorial worlds can be bright and friendly, but also threatening and sinister, often an ambivalent mood prevails. Always the powerful images are an encounter with the viewer, they give space for multiple associations, but keep their secrets to themselves.
Characteristic of his creative work are the motifs that define the series Guardians, Angels and Spirits & Dreams. Edward Bekkerman's creatures are frontal, with an emphasis on the head and face and a representation in reduced forms. The motif of angels has always inspired the imagination of artists. Angels are often shown as winged beings with long flowing robes, as supernaturally beautiful, mysterious beings from the world of mythology, as powerful protectors and messengers from heaven. They appear in dreams, protect against mischief and act as mediators between earthly and heavenly spheres. In addition, there is also the motif of the fallen angel, a black angel who appears threatening and terrifying.
Edward Bekkerman experiments with the depiction of the figure of his angels, presenting them on the one hand strongly abstracted, but on the other hand with colorful, detailed wings and robes reminiscent of the glass art in church windows. His Guardians, the watchers and protectors, have shadowy faces that turn to the viewer and connect with him. They appear sinister, almost grotesque, radiating strength and determination. The hands, too, seem to turn toward the viewer in some paintings; in others, they ward off the world. The angels of the series Angels seem friendly and turned towards, floating in light bright white and blue tones, as bearers of positive messages from another world, as a symbol of understanding and rapprochement of human existence and spiritual world.
The Spirits & Dreams series includes abstract compositions with circular elements that represent a kind of frame or shelter. Individual creatures and groups of figures are silhouetted, only catching the eye upon closer inspection in the blurred rendering and shimmering vibrant colors. Tall and erect, slender beings crowd together, spirit beings in dream images. The boundaries between individual figures and group blur into a seemingly abstract whole.
In the Faces series, one encounters people, faces of individuals with striking contours and a broad spectrum of emotions. They are expressive images between realism and expressionism, in the interplay between recognizability and abstraction. They show people with many facets against a plain background, almost universally without reference to a specific environment or objects that would embed the sitter in a particular setting. The focus is always on people, individuals with a strong presence. The shades of color and contrasts used by Edward Bekkerman contribute significantly to the effect of the portraits. They are not meant to be images, but to make the spiritual reality, the invisible, perceptible. Often the emphasis is on the eyes as a mirror of the soul, as in the design of the heavily made-up singer or the smiling man. The artist`s self-portraits titled When I was young and beautiful and It`s me, reflections of his personal development, have a particularly intense effect. The older portrait radiates determination in the struggle for his existence in his early years, the later depiction It`s me a little more lightness, self-confidence, an arrival as an artist.
The portraits and self-portraits are psychologically differentiated images, close-ups of great power and vitality. They represent variations on a theme, isolated figures in front of empty backgrounds, sometimes blurred and roughly outlined, detached from reality. Edward Bekkerman's drawings are also complex, with people appearing serious and thoughtful, holding oversized hands or caring for an animal. The emotionally charged, sometimes distorted and grotesque depiction may be disturbing at first glance. It is not easy to decipher, but it sets in motion an examination of the portrait and the portrayed. It is never a matter of reproducing the external appearance, but of capturing the charisma, the aura of a person.
The artistic examination of the representation of people continues in the series Hats. It includes images of individual people such as dandy or a father figure, but the motif also suggests power or authority in higher-level contexts. Hats make a person taller, make him appear elegant. In Edward Bekkerman's work, hats are disproportionately large, black or detailed with colorful patchy elements. Hats protect the head, the inner world that controls our behavior but is not necessarily accessible to conscious reflection.
Edward Bekkerman's Flowers series resembles the paintings in the Faces series in composition and coloration; for the artist, flowers are equal elements of nature and the universe. The flowers shine in bright white and blue tones, similar to the colors of angels. Each painting shows only one flower, each standing on its own, almost universally alive and powerfully reaching for the sky. The flowers are not decoration, but symbols of life and beauty, of sensual experience, a fragrance or a particular texture. In many languages, flowers are images for a striking woman (an English rose), but they can also have sinister connotations (flowers of evil).
The Victories series adds new aspects to the depiction of angels and humans. At the center of the works are circular structures that evoke the image of a target and define a space that dictates the arrangement of other motifs and pictorial elements. In the background, landscapes can be dimly discerned, scenes with people and other living beings, complex ensembles of forms and figures. In the black center of the pane, peculiar color effects, small spots in yellow or red attract the eye. They bring to mind the effect of the impact of a bullet in the center of a target, but they also evoke associations with formations inside cells, which are needed to provide energy and are linked to basic functions of all living things. The concentric arrangement of circles, typical of the works in the series, has an archaic meaning and is inspired by the constellation of the solar system, in which the earth and the planets revolve around the sun. The depiction symbolizes the interconnectedness of man with the universe and a harmonious balance between individuals and the world, central themes in the work of Edward Bekkerman.
Contemporary works (New Work) have a special significance in the artistic development of the painter. The works include abstract and color-intensive compositions, but paintings in consistently dark colors, in which rays rise from a solid ground. Circles as symbols of infinity, collections of figures turning towards each other, a meeting in the labyrinth of the unconscious. The paintings deal with questions about the power and energy of emotions and the search for causes and effects that do not reveal themselves to conscious processing. They reflect a deep intuitive appreciation of beauty and its many forms of expression.
In his work, Edward Bekkerman presents a pictorial world with creatures that seem to be connected to another world, humans, animals, plants, mythical Figures, spirit beings. The contours are often blurred and the forms often become accessible only with prolonged contemplation. The artist draws his inspiration from the connection with this world. During the lockdown associated with the COVID pandemic, many people turned back to themselves and to essentials, finding inner strength in coping with social isolation. In his artistic exploration of this situation, the artist created images of people with oversized eyes, expressions of wonder at the loss of predictability and limited control over their own lives.
Edward Bekkerman's world of images, full of signs and symbols, sensitizes us to the attraction of the strange, to a spiritual world, to connections of meaning beyond reality. His work is an impulse for a mental examination of what seems strange and unknown to us and creates cross connections to classical motifs of Eastern European art. The symbolism in his work speaks to people, it recurs to a deeper level, questions about the nature of things. It is connected with spiritual questions and the need to search for one's roots. Edward Bekkerman's work plays with different levels of reality and consciousness, it suggests intermediate worlds. His work encourages us to look behind the facade and beneath the surface. His images speak for themselves and stimulate the imagination. The viewer should be open to an exploration of unexpected thoughts, associations and emotions of their own that are evoked by the images. Edward Bekkerman's work is challenging and stimulates new ideas and insights in a world increasingly dominated by materialism and obsession with technology.
Prof. Dr. Irene Daum, Düsseldorf
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