Featured Artist Wim Zorn

Painter Wim Zorn creates dynamic abstracts using a bold interplay of color and emotions. View more paintings on his website.

 

 

I was 10 years old when I started creating compositions. Every day, using hard and soft pencil leads, I would construct black-and-white compositions by placing lines close together or further apart. Dozens of notepads turned into hundreds of sheets of paper filled with black-and-white compositions. I can’t say how I came up with the idea. I just started doing it. It was fascinating to create a drawing full of grey and black areas and thereby create something that had never existed before. I kept this up for many years.

 

 

When I was winding down my career in advertising and marketing and had swapped pencils for brushes, Hans Paalman became my artistic mentor. It was meeting him as director of the Stedelijk Museum in Dordrecht that proved decisive in my search for myself. Hans Paalman taught me that creativity can only be developed by staying true to yourself.

 

 

I returned to my abstract compositions from my pencil-drawing days, but replaced the black lines with areas of colour. Colour signifies emotion. And the interplay of different colours creates a unique image, allowing the viewer to experience both feelings and emotion, tranquility and a sense of connection.

 

 

Hans Paalman invited me for a day at TEFAF in Maastricht. He wanted to show me the works of Maurice Estève. An abstract artist who, during his lifetime, had created not only colourful abstracts in oil and acrylic but also countless compositions featuring an interplay of black lines. Hans bought a monograph on Estève and then pressed it into my hands. “Go and study that work, and pay particular attention to those compositions in the overview of his oeuvre.”

 

 

Looking back on my life, I must say that I perceive a logical connection in growth and development. The feeling that the path I have taken could not have been any other is present in all my current works.

 

 

Peter Leen, owner of the eponymous gallery in Breukelen, recognised Serge Poliakoff’s paintings and style in my work right from our first meeting. I, for my part, had never heard of Poliakoff. Some research and another visit to TEFAF, where a large retrospective of his paintings was on display, left me confused. Peter Leen said: “I am convinced that you are your own person. Don’t let Poliakoff stop you from following your own path.”

 

 

Following my participation in the Florence Biennale, exhibitions followed in New York, Las Vegas, the Nevada Museum, Dubai and a large number of European cities. Working abroad made a great impression on me. Partly because art knows no boundaries, is universally appreciated, and represents the same values everywhere. Also memorable was my friendship with the prominent Italian architect Sergio Umberto Barbieri, who was then affiliated with architecture faculties in Milan, Venice and Delft. Barbieri described my works as belonging to the realm of interior design.

 

 

Many of my works transform spaces. Not just living rooms, but also commercial spaces. Barbieri: “Zorn listens to his fascination with the use of colour and seeks a subtle balance between the spontaneous and the deliberate, without losing sight of the power of the composition.”

 

Want to stay current on cutting edge business articles from Artsy Shark, plus artist features, and an invitation to the next Call for Artists? Click below to sign up for our twice-monthly email. You’ll get all this plus opportunities and special offers that you can’t get anywhere else!