Peter Hoijmakers
What Kind of Man Am I
2024 | oil on wood | 125 × 95 cm
In 2023, Hoijmakers traveled to Granada, Spain for a 14-month work period. During his stay there, the ongoing crisis and conflict in Palestine by Israel reignited. This situation evoked great emotions in the world around Hoijmakers and in himself. He found it difficult to determine a position and felt powerless in the senseless loss of so many lives.
A painter he admires greatly, Philip Guston, had the same struggle at another time, during the war in Vietnam. Guston wondered 'What kind of man am I' and what does that mean as a painter, as a human being, and how do you take a position without losing yourself?
This painting by Hoijmakers, inspired by this question, is an artistic response, but also a personal search for meaning and position. Art gives him the space to express in a visual way the emotions, questions and powerlessness that words may not be able to fully capture.Show me more
