Barend Blankert. (Luxe editie)

Barend Blankert (born in Kampen, 1941) is one of the most notable figurative Dutch painters today. His figurative works and still lifes, usually painted at a fairly large scale, are conspicuous for their slightly melancholic, alienating feeling that prompts the viewer to ponder their meaning. Blankert has sometimes been referred to as a descendant of the Magic Realists, especially Willink. The tendency to make this association, however, ignores his entirely idiosyncratic and immediately recognisable way of rendering in which the dry brushstrokes and the somewhat subdued colours smother any suggestion of virtuosity and striving for effect. Barend Blankert provides for the first time a representative survey of Blankert's oeuvre.