Page 8 - Rien Vorgers : The Art World of Rien Vorgers

“Ehret die Frauen! Sie flechten und weben
Himmlische Rosen ins irdische Leben …“
(Honour the women! They plait and weave
heavenly roses in this earthy life…)
These lines from a poem of Friedrich von
Schiller (1759-1805) cited in his 87th year by
Rien Vörgers, remained in his heart since he
was a little boy, growing up in the East of
The Netherlands, near the German border,
where cultural ties are not bound to specific
nationalistic sentiments. This artist is definitely
not a womanizer, but a sincere admirer of
woman’s unbroken strength, her bondage, her
empathic mind, and her unwavering conviction
that righteousness should prevail. See ‘women
in function’.
Being a romantic, Rien was passoionate
about painting in water colors: portraits and
landscapes.
A teacher at the Art Academy in Enschede
stated once that Rien’s water colors exhaled
the atmosphere of “magic realism”. But
around 1980, when a dramatic change in the
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art world occurred and when a re-orientation
in contemporary art took place, Rien had
already for some years mused upon a new way
of abstract expression. Since individuality in
art had become accepted world-wide several
decades earlier as the norm, something
had to be done, in his opinion. His opinion
was that losing the possibility of showing
thoughts and circumstances in a tangible way
(understandable for the consumer of modern
art) ignoring the preferences of the mighty and
the rich, had been a fashion that had served its
purpose and should now be avoided.
Rien’s delicate nature would not permit him to
paint with rough strokes: his subjects stand
out precisely. In detailed compositions he
expresses his private feelings and views that
are inspired by what society in all its various
manifestations offers him. Here he is in tune
with Benedictus XVI’s desire, that art should
play a binding part in society.
Rien’s paintings treat a fundamental aspect in
society where human coherence is at stake. In
1978, when he created a completely new way of