World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 339 - Tineke Porck
World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 339 - Tineke Porck
Tineke Porck showed her recent 'Shifts' works in the exhibition 'On The Move' in the upper hall of The Hague Art Circle (Haagse Kunstkring). We saw combinations of white, blue, red and black squares in many shapes that are energized by intermediate bars – or lines – in the colors yellow, black, white and red.
In Tineke Porck's work, space, structure and line are of the utmost importance. She combines surfaces and lines, whereby the lines are shorter than the surfaces. To be precise, in a ratio of four to five.
Sliding on the table
She starts very simply by sliding squares on the table. If she has an interesting combination, she makes a sketch with pencil. She then gets to work on the individual parts: sanding, priming and treating with different layers of paint. It takes a lot of time to put it all together. Tineke Porck: “The backside is sometimes the hardest. You have to fit the connecting plates and the frame in such a way that the open spaces within the work remain free and that the work in front looks perfect. Each work requires its own specific backside.”
The tension and playfulness of the work is increased because the lines are sometimes placed in front of, sometimes behind the surface. In this way she creates surprising open spaces, which creates a rotation in the work. She emphasizes that rotation by changing the direction of the paint stroke, first horizontally, then vertically, then horizontally again.
Constructivism
Porck's work is in the tradition of constructivism and concrete art. She uses a formal language based on constructive elements: line, point and surface. Numerical proportions, horizontality and verticality are important. She consciously leaves room for intuition and a personal touch in her work. Porck: “I want the work to have a certain softness. This attitude makes me not a hard edge constructivist. My work looks sleek, but there's a lot in it that isn't sleek. That makes it interesting.”
In 2014 Porck's work was shown alongside that of Joost Baljeu, Bob Bonies, Marus van der Made, José Heerkens and Ditti Ketting during the exhibition 'Concreet Nu' in Zoetermeer. The curator was Hannie van der Made, an expert in this field.
In 2017 Tineke Porck herself curated 'Concreet 100 years later' in Leiden as part of 100 years of De Stijl. The work of Bob Bonies, Piet Tuytel, Lon Pennock, Cor van Dijk and Tineke Porck could be seen there.
Key work
Does she have a key work, a work that brought her to a new development? She has. Tineke Porck: “I make series, there is a series of points, a series of lines, surfaces, dialogues, etc. You can consider the first work of a new series as a key work. In between series I do research for a sequel, and suddenly something arises that you can continue with and which you will develop further. The work that entails that is a key work for me.
The 'Shifts' series was created in 2019. She takes the well-packaged key work of the 'Shifts' series from her bag. It is a small work, three small black squares. “In the 'Dialogues' series I still had two surfaces/blocks without a line. Then I placed bars/lines between the surfaces. First a line that stuck out and then a line that was too short, shorter than the surface. Then came the next step: what happens if I add a surface and let the line slide along the surface? There was greater space within the work, an important step. The work was titled 'Shifts -1' because of the shift.”
And so a series of beautiful 'Shifts' works arose.
Free Academy
Tineke Porck has been active as an artist for 33 years. She first studied Scandinavian languages, had children and when they were a bit older she wanted to work with her hands. She went to the Free Academy in The Hague and was taught by Pim van der Maas and Nout Visser in the wood and welding department. “I made connections visible using circular shapes, transparent squares, hemispheres and stainless steel frames. Very interesting. That was from 1989 to 1994.”
“Around 2000 I stopped with spatial work because of back problems. I was going to convert my ideas to the flat surface. With the recent series 'Shifts' I have brought the space within the flat surface. I think that's fantastic.”
Does she have any philosophy?
“I have no message. When I'm busy, I'm philosophizing in my head. I like harmony, but I also want people to see differently. A small shift and you get other spaces as a gift.”
Images
1) poster - courtesy of Stroom, 2) room overview On The Move, 3) Shifts, 39 28x305cm, oil on panel construction, 2020, 4) Shifts 61-2021, oil paint on canvas and wood construction, 818x1236 cm, 2021, 5) studio shot April 2021, 7 - 9) works Tineke Porck
