Chat with Hans Op de Beeck

Hans Op de Beeck and I talk about being excited to be back at work. He describes the time away from the studio due to covid restrictions as numb and we talk about the joys of painting in the dark, the intimacy and the generosity of the night. Hans talks about wanting to paint in colour, telling a story of making a painting for the Royal Palace in Brussels, which in the end was in black and white. We talk a lot about grey, about shadows and about light. Hans talks about exploring the width of being a postmodern artist, which he thinks is about balancing form and content precisely. He talks about people over-estimating him and the idea of faking it til you make it. He talks about jumping into problems and getting out of your comfort zones as essential positions for making work. We talk about art as consolation and the idea of finding comfort in a visual proposal. We discuss his work, Stargazing, 2020, visually climbing the cliff through his description. He talks about being anachronistic with ironic winks, mingling bad and good taste and high and low culture. We talk about art historical eye openers, and how something can be artificial and authentic. We talk about departing from the simple and getting complicated and evoking rather than simulating. We talk about staging amusement and staging emotions and celebrate the beauty in the silliness of life.  Links:  https://hansopdebeeck.com https://ronmandos.nl/viewing-room-overview/ Images:  Sea of Tranquility, 2010 Film still 16:9, 29:50 min All visuals are copyright: courtesy of Studio Hans Op de Beeck --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/emma-cousin/support