How did the bird get into Arie's art?
One day, many years ago, snow fell in Dallas, Texas, a very rare event.
As Arie was sitting at the window watching the white spectacle unfold,
a black crow landed close to the window,
as amazed about the white powder as Arie was.
It stayed around, looking in, even as Arie fetched his sketchbook and penciled him down.
Some days later, the crow-sketch became embedded into the snow-landscape seen below.
There it stayed for many years, a small bird, merely contoured in the white texture of the snow.
Many years later, Arie lifted him from this canvas and developed him as an independent subject matter of his art work.
Since then, he has appeared as theme in many variations.
Stay tuned for some of them.
ARIE W. VAN SELM
- ArieVanSelm
- Born in the Netherlands, he grew up in the home of Dutch impressionist artist Willem Witsen (1860-1923). After finishing his education in Amsterdam, he traveled through Europe and settled in the South of France. Here, Van Selm took inspiration from the legacies of Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse and Picasso. He developed a keen sense for the vibrancy of light and began to use the palette as a major means to define his style. Inspired by the contemporary swerve visible in studios and galleries throughout the city, Van Selm moved to New York in the eighties. During this time, he developed what would become his signature theme - human heads in profile. Over the years, Van Selm also spent time at an artists’ commune in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, and made multiple trips to Kyoto, Japan. These journeys served to influence his brush stroke and impact his evolving style. Arie Van Selm’s art is in numerous collections, public and private, in the United States, Europe, as well as in Japan. He works and exhibits in New York, Dallas, Amsterdam, and Berlin.