Beginning
It is 1969. The time of experimental, progressive pop music: Jimi
Hendrix, Mothers of Invention, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Soft Machine, Emerson
Lake & Palmer. There is a new music magazine in The Netherlands with an unusual
lay-out:: Hitweek, initiated by Willem de Ridder. In this magazine there are often
pictures of posters of pop groups, with fantasy-letters and Jugendstil elements.
There is a boy, 16 years old: Rob Rand, who loves this music, and these posters.
But he has no money to buy them.. Therefore he decides, to draw posters himself.
Development
He begins very primitive, using felt-tips. A simple play with lines,
name of the pop group in trendy letters
(see
Jimi Hendrix).
Later he uses coloured inks, combined with felt-tip. The drawings now become very
detailed, almost graphical, all different forms who are combined together, interlarded
with larger forms
(see f.i. Vanilla
Fudge).
Then he discovers the gouache. Now small miracles happen. The forms become very
free, within a rich gradation of colours. See for instance
Country
Joe & the Fish. A highlight is
Iron
Butterfly, where colour inks and gouache are combined. The richness of forms
is overwhelming, everywhere there is something to see. An other interesting element
in these and other drawings is the ingenious hiding of the name of the pop group
(Harumi1,
Absolutely Free).
Besides he also makes drawings without names. It almost looks like...Art! See
especially
Lamp.
Later he uses the Rotringpen. He makes larger works on ivory carton, strange landscapes
with a spatial aspect.
A strange lab
One time he makes a drawing, with a title made up in advance, together
with an other art friend: A strange lab. This results in a drawing with a strange
room and a cellar. Stairs, coloured light effects, mist. Somebody sitting on a
seat, a thread connected with a machine. According to Rob the inventor has attached
himself to his own invention, and has become the victim of it. Later he makes
a large version of this work. Because the name A Strange Lab can be seen as a
metaphor of all his works, it has been chosen as the title of the exposition..
Our temple
Especially in the later works with the landscapes a temple occurs,
see for instance
130871.
Rob explains the genesis of the temple as follows: he is the inhabitant of the
temple. Others are also allowed to live in this temple, to get a room in it. To
give others entrance to this temple hij makes a drawing for them. By giving them
a part of his world, he gives them access to this world.
Later Rob Rand has left the idea of making posters and has tried, to make Real
Art. However...
© Rob Rand 2006