Lily de Bont

The paintings of Lily de Bont (Ulvenhout, 1958) are both a destruction and a reconstructed alternative to the archetypal painting. De Bont attacks the painting head-on by cutting the canvas, removing it from the stretcher or “de-weaving” (reversed weaving). Where she initially stiffened the affected canvas with plaster or epoxy, the canvas has remained flexible in recent years. Armed with a scalpel, she carefully dissects the canvas like an accomplished pathologist. The unraveled threads hang down loosely and change the overall look, including the dimensions when the work is tilted or draped differently. The wooden stretcher, if present, is exposed as a skeleton. In other work, the limbs are made independent and further dissected by means of what she calls amputations. Finally, the canvas can also be finished without a skeleton. Here her work touches on the principles of the French Supports/Surfaces artists. It is the “preparation” of the canvas, the reduction, that further deepens the theme of “Beauty and destruction” and exposes unprecedented possibilities.

 She herself says about her working method: “By loosening the threads I discovered that a fabric is actually a grid. By using the grid for precise positioning of the paint, the composition, I have endless possibilities and more control over the result. By cutting the linen loose, I hand over part of it to gravity. This unavoidable force is visible in the work. The abstract minimalist painted shapes hold the linen together and are now the constructive element of the work.

 Lily de Bont (NL) lives and works in Rotterdam. She graduated with honors from the Sint Joost Academy in Den Bosch in 1989. That year she received the “Lucas Prize” and the “Jan Hoet Prize”. Recent exhibitions include NL=US Gallery in Rotterdam, ACEC in Apeldoorn, Artphy in Onstwedde, Sebastian Fath Contemporary in Mannheim and Transmitter in New York.