Dutch master Pat Andrea in Manila | Lifestyle.INQ

OCTOBER 27, 2022

Filipinos have a chance to get a survey of contemporary European art through a one-of-a-kind exhibit of the works of Dutch painter Pat Andrea, one of the Continent’s foremost artists.

His works are along the vein of “magic realism and nonfigurative painting.”

“Magic realism is a style of a group of painters from Holland in the 1930s and 1940s. It’s a sort of dream world,” Andrea told the Inquirer.

“My painting is not so realistic. I observe to paint the world as objectively as possible. I do it intuitively: I make the drawings first, the first line search for the image. I try not to consider it only as a sketch from the beginning: I really try to see what these lines you make in the first sketch as important information from reality. I enlarge this sketch and start making corrections, where I keep from the first lines what is interesting. In that way, you can get a strange connection between very realistic details and very intuitively, spontaneously drawn lines.”

Since he’s Dutch, Andrea would have to pay fealty to Rembrandt. He said he liked the drawings and etchings of the Dutch master, but not the paintings “because they are too dark.”

Andrea said he was also influenced by comics or cartoons, especially Belgian Herge, who did “Tin Tin”; and the Flemish primitives and the Italian painters of the 14th century.

When one looks at the paintings of Andrea, one is reminded of “Alice in Wonderland.”

Andrea did not disagree with that observation. He called the book “fantastic.”

“‘Alice in Wonderland’ is not for children. It’s too absurd for them! There is a sort of strange humor you get only when you get older. When you really read the text, it’s fantastic! Lewis Caroll is the inventor of surrealism.”

As a young man, Andrea said he had wanted to do the illustrations for the book. “Then came this lady editor Diane De Selliers who made only one book a year: the best photographs, the best printers, the best paper, the best artists! It is a book that’s about 250-2,000 euros. When I was asked to do the illustrations, I couldn’t believe it!”

War baby

Born in 1942 during World War II, the Hague-born and -bred painter remembers having seen from the third-floor balcony of his ancestral home rockets being launched toward Britain. This was his earliest childhood memory.

He also remembered his parents hiding a Jewish woman in their home, and passing her off as a relative whenever someone would ask; and of his grandfather Escher printing fake passports in his lithograph press during the war. It was somewhat akin to the experience of the family that harbored Anne Frank and her family in Amsterdam during those years.

Andrea recognized how brave his grandparents and parents were in their involvement in the Resistance movement; after all, a third of the Dutch who hid Jews did not survive the war.

The environment under which Andrea grew up was so encouraging, it is not surprising that he became a painter. His father Kees was a very well-known painter in the Netherlands, and his mom, Metty Naezer, an illustrator.

Andrea himself was schooled in the Academy of Fine Arts, mentored by a professor he identified only as Westerik. He was someone who was undoubtedly brilliant as an artist but who opted to teach, Andrea said.

Changed role for painters

When asked about his philosophy as a painter, Andrea paused and said: “An important function of the artist changed in the last century. Until then, painters depicted the physical and objective world. Before the invention of photography, people depended on the images of painters because they were the only ones who could make an image of the objective world. The images were precious because only the rich had them. The invention of photography in the midst of the 19th century was a very important turn. Before the invention of photography, we painted and interpreted the objective world. Now, photographers can do it better.

“We are here to paint a world we cannot see, the world of ideas, the world of dreams, the things that do not exist. That’s our task. We have to be unique and interesting. A painter paints in a very special, unique singular way. If he does it like that, if he has a lot of talent, his message will come through.”

In Manila

A very “worldly” artist, Andrea speaks Dutch, English, French, Spanish, German, and a little Greek. He came to the Philippines almost by accident.

Remigio “Boy” David, chair and artistic director of AltroMondo Arte Contemporanea Gallery, had thought of bringing Paris-based painter Antonio Segui to the Philippines for an exhibit. But somehow, he got connected to Segui’s three other Paris-based friends who incidentally have studios very near one another’s: Vladimir Velickovic, Ernest Pignon-Ernest and Andrea.

“As you could see, our works are different from one another,” said Andrea. “But we represent four painters of a generation who are fighting for individual art—for an art as it is generally accepted now—now that every artist as an individual affords his part of the art world in contemporary art. We were never a part of a mainstream group of painters.”

Andrea added: “It was really a good proposal from Remigio to book these four painters together as we have never exhibited together. I regret really that none of the other three could make it, else, they would have been surprised the way it was presented.”
The artist praised the opening. “He did a great job there,” he said of the opening of “High Notes” at the Mindanao Room of Sofitel. “I love the theatrical presentation!”

The exhibit has since moved to Altro Mondo Arte Contemporanea Gallery at the 3rd floor of Greenbelt 5, Makati City.

Art teacher

Despite declining an invitation to teach when he was younger, Andrea started teaching at 56 years old at the Beaux Art de Paris. He taught for 10 years.

“There is an atelier around an arts teacher,” Andrea said about the system of art education in France. “He chooses some 15-25 students and asks if they can study with him. There already is a selection. My atelier was a place to paint: students making films, comics, abstracts, figurative ones very near to me. It was a complete mixture. There was some sort of individual teaching, a relationship between professor and student. It was very absorbing, a big effort to teach each student individually. We had to discuss, talk about results, find a way for each. They could choose to stay five years with you. It could change. They could stay if the professor accepted this, or they could go to another. I had advised students to go to another.”

When Andrea left the academy, his students petitioned the French Ministry of Culture for him to stay longer. But Andrea said he had to paint.

“Consider that I have 20 years maybe to do the rest: my masterpiece to do all the paintings I want to do,” he said. “A painter dies with a pencil or a brush in his hand.”

Plans, plans

These days, Andrea shuttles between his main base in Paris, the Netherlands, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, where his wife hails from and which he considers his adopted home.

“My studio in Paris is fantastic. I am very happy there. Paris has all the museums and exhibitions. Parisians are a little bit strong, not very friendly. It’s very gray climate in Paris; a lot of things are gray. And it can get cold. I need to go once a year to Buenos Aires. I need inspiration. Buenos Aires is different. It is not as big, but I have a nice studio there.”

Andrea said he was excited about next year. “I will have an exhibition in Brussels with two artists. One is an artist, too, like me, and one is a comic artist—the Argentinian Carlos Nine.”

He and his family of artists (wife Cristina, son Mateo and daughter Azul) will hold an exhibit with an all-artist Swiss family soon.

While in Manila, Andrea said he was looking forward to seeing long-time friend, prima ballerina Maniya Barredo, now based in Atlanta.

“I think it is important for an artist to be true to himself,” Andrea said. “He shouldn’t give in to the temptation to follow the art market too much, saying, This art is successful so I will make it. When we’re young we need a sort of master, but it has to be …a success. Because if you run for success, maybe you will have success for some time. If it’s not truly you, you will not make it. Make an art that will speak to many people. You have to be true to yourself and the way you do it.”

“High Notes,” featuring works by Pat Andrea, is exhibited at the Altro Mondo Arte Contemporanea Gallery on the 3rd floor of Greenbelt 5, Makati City. It is open to the public until July 24. Call 5013270 to 71 or check out www.altromondo.com.ph.

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