World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 524 - Philip Akkerman

World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 524 – Philip Akkerman

In the House of the Book museum (Huis van het Boek museum) on the Prinsessegracht in The Hague, an exhibition of the work of Philip Akkerman can be seen. Self-portraits of course, because Philip Akkerman has been painting nothing but self-portraits for 44 years. And this time they are self-portraits with all the letters of the alphabet. You see the exhibition ‘Alphabet Self-portraits’ immediately when you enter the entrance area. Behind the counter hang his 26 letters.

I speak to Philip Akkerman in the coffee room of the museum in the basement. How did he come up with the idea to use the Alphabet for his self-portraits?

New series

Akkerman: “I have been painting nothing but self-portraits for over 40 years. Sometimes I look for some variation. It is fun when you alienate the self-portrait a little from the subject. What kind of series would I make? A self-portrait as an animal, starting with a cat? A self-portrait as fruit, like Arcimboldo had done? I came up with another idea: I will make a series of self-portraits with the letters of the alphabet.”

In the Middle Ages, there were illuminated manuscripts. Each manuscript was unique, because each book was written and decorated by hand. The museum has several beautiful examples on display. Akkerman: “When you open such a manuscript, you see an initial capital letter, richly illustrated with flowers and plants. That capital letter is barely recognizable, but then you see pricot in black letters behind that richly decorated block, and then you know it is an A.”

He started painting the letters in his own way. A Rotterdam design agency, Team Thursday, exhibited his alphabet paintings in their project space. “And they turned those paintings into a font. I can type with it. A typeable alphabet.”

No psychological self-portrait

Self-portraits are the first, middle and last subject of all human action, he says. “With everything we do, we ‘draw’ ourselves.”

In Western painting, the self-portrait is an important theme. Many painters and draftsmen make and made self-portraits. Some very many (Rembrandt), others a little less, sometimes they ‘hide’ in one of the secondary figures in the painting. But Akkerman beats them all. “I have made more than 5000. I keep it up because it is not a self-portrait of the individual Philip Akkerman, not a psychological self-portrait, but a philosophical self-portrait.”

He didn’t know that when he started. “It started on a whim. I kept doing it. It wasn’t until 10 years later that I started thinking about it. Then I realized that it wasn’t psychological self-portraits, nor was it a comic strip of my life, but that it had a philosophical basis.”

A famous philosopher

He quotes a famous philosopher who wrote:

Existence is a blind force that, like brick or plant, cannot perceive itself. With an animal, existence can perceive itself.

Akkerman: “Arthur Schopenhauer. With an animal, existence can perceive itself. With the human animal, existence can not only perceive itself, but existence, that blind force, can also contemplate itself.”

“I had been making self-portraits for ten years and had often been told that I was a narcissist. I started thinking about that. I don’t think I was a narcissist. I started reading books about psychology and narcissism, and also books about philosophy. Among other things, I bought the History of Philosophy in Two Volumes by H.J. Störig. I read it twice and I got stuck on Schopenhauer. Then I bought the complete works of Schopenhauer. It wasn’t until I read it for the third time that it dawned on me. Schopenhauer wrote: ‘The purpose of existence is to make a self-portrait’. That was exactly what I did!”

Key work

He doesn’t have a key work, he says. “For me it’s about the whole. I never throw anything away. The failed paintings are also part of it.”

“I studied at De Ateliers, among others, where conceptual art was the focus at the time. The image/representation is of secondary importance. It’s about the idea, if that’s formulated, it’s basically enough. That’s where I started with the self-portraits.”

Works by the old masters

The principles of conceptual art also applied to Akkerman at that time. “Initially, I was not interested in whether a painting was beautiful. But one day, by accident, I made a very beautiful painting and I wanted to do it again. But I couldn’t do it. And that frustrated me. Intuitively, I started painting in one colour. One day I was in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and saw a painting by an old master that was half finished. The part that was finished was painted in bright colours, the part that was not finished was only painted in green and white. Why was that? It was because the old masters divided the painting process into three parts, first the drawing/composition, then dark/light and finally the colour.”

There is a film of Philips painting technique on YouTube called ‘Old Master, No Secrets’. In it you can see how he builds up a painting, from an empty panel to a finished painting. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIJvY4UFMyE

With technique you can do what you have in mind, he says. “You grow. I still get better every year. That’s a fantastic experience. As an artist I’m the same as I was when I was 16, but technically I have much more possibilities to make beautiful paintings. That also applies – more broadly – ​​to humanity as a whole. We’re still the monkey that kills its neighbor when he comes to his house. In the past we had a stick at our disposal for that, now we have an atomic bomb.”

What is his experience with the art world?

“I can’t complain. My art is doing well. I regularly participate in exhibitions. It comes in waves. My work is appreciated, and that’s wonderful.”

“Art is as serious as cancer, but people take it far too seriously. I paint for my pleasure. I want to enjoy myself. In the meantime, I do touch the core of existence.”

Finally, what is his philosophy?

“My work is strictly framed. I have one subject, one technique (that of the old masters) and one format. Within that, I am completely free and allow everything that presents itself. No matter how backward it may be. I try not to be ashamed of anything. That is why my work is still vital after 44 years.”

https://philipakkerman.com/
https://www.instagram.com/philip_akkerman/
www.huisvanhetboek.nl
https://inzaken.eu/