Always Looking Charles Donker from 3 December 2021 to 3 April 2022 Opening hours: every day except Monday, from 12 to 6 pm The Fondation Custodia presents a solo show of Charles Donker (born in 1940). Donker’s technique, and the renowned delicacy of his work, place him among the greatest Dutch graphic artists of his time. The Fondation holds a large selection of his engravings, but in the exhibition a choice of his drawings and watercolours will also be shown for the first time. The group of works cover the fifty years of the artist’s career.
Presentation Charles Donker works principally ‘on the spot’. ‘I do not know how to be anywhere other than out of doors’, the draughtsman and printmaker confesses. ‘I need to see the sky, hear the rustling of the trees, watch the birds flying about and experience nature’s profound silence. I would be seriously unhappy if I could no longer go outside’. This ‘outside’ can be located anywhere. Donker has travelled in France, England, Spain, Poland, Latin America and Israel. At Rhijnauwen, in the Netherlands, Donker has been working since 1970 in the former dwelling of a forester. ‘I have made many etchings of the landscape around the studio. It’s mixed woodland and farmland: behind a group of trees there is a hedge, and behind the hedge another line of trees. A group of horizontal lines with meadows in between. I like things that are straight and well-balanced, horizontally or vertically’. Charles Donker, Landscape at Kromme Rijn / Rhijnauwen with bird names, c. 1972 Etching. – 176 × 199 mmFondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris Sometimes a tree is the sole subject of a print. But it has first to have shed its leaves. A tree cannot be a model for him in summer time. ‘It is very difficult to represent a tree in leaf’, Donker explains. ‘Also, I cannot draw anything from my imagination. I need to have everything before my eyes. I really look hard at the tree’. Charles Donker, Birch near a Field (Birch III), c. 1991 Etching and aquatint. – 370 × 279 mm Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris The great landscape artists of the nineteenth century made sketches en plein air, then re-worked them in the studio. Donker’s view is that ‘what is done on the spot is generally the best. That’s why I prefer etching directly onto the plate. When things are going well, I am completely absorbed in what I do. A feeling of happiness pervades. Time no longer exists, I feel completely at ease and happy’. Working from nature offers this additional reward. A print by Charles Donker is a summary of events observed over a few days, in places where almost nothing exists but the place itself. The slightest motion is forbidden. Donker thinks birds fly too fast for his taste, he can only represent them when they are very close and make no movement of wing or claw for a long stretch of time. In general, this means they are dead. Charles Donker, Pine Cone V, 2011-12 Etching. – 125 × 163 mmCollection Ger Luijten, Paris Donker makes us see what he has seen. He wants to share with us the beauty of what he has observed, the beauty of nature. At this exhibition, those who know Charles Donker only as a printmaker will discover a completely different aspect of his talent. The landscapes of Spain and Latin America demonstrate the colourist dormant within him, through a selection of watercolours, wash drawings and pencil sketches. Charles Donker, Mountain Landscape, Monfragüe, 1994 Acrylic on watercolour paper. – 454 × 687 mmFondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris Charles Donker, Cloud Forest: Trees in Tropical Forest near Utuana, Ecuador, 2003 Watercolour. – 300 × 400 mmFondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris The Dutch Institute for Art History in the Netherlands (RKD) has published an online catalogue raisonné of the prints of Charles Donker, compiled by Jan Piet Filedt Kok: https://charlesdonker.rkdstudies.nl/contents/.
Catalogue Charles Donker. D’abord regarder / Altijd kijkenJan Piet Filedt Kok, Ger Luijten, Gijsbert van der WalParis, Fondation Custodia, 2021224 pages, 200 colour illustrations, 24 × 30 cm, hardback34,50 € French edition: ISBN 978 90 6868 852 8[Out of stock] Dutch edition: ISBN 978 90 6868 851 1 ORDER Ne renseignez pas ce champ To order this book, please fill out the form below. You will receive an invoice by e-mail, including package and postage fees. Payments can be made by bank transfer. Title Please leave this field empty: Quantity (Required) First name (Required) Last name (Required) Company Address (Required) Postal code City (Required) Country (Required) E-mail (Required) Phone number Remarks The information supplied by you through this form is collected by the Fondation Custodia in order to process your order. In accordance with the law Informatique et Libertés of 6 January 1978, modified, and with the Règlement Général sur la Protection des Données, you have the legal right to access your data, to rectify them, to restrict them, to transfer them or to suppress them. In order to exercise these rights, you can contact the Fondation Custodia, 121 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris, +33 (0)1 47 05 75 19, coll.lugt@fondationcustodia.fr. To find out more about our Privacy Policy. CANCEL
Practical Information Address Fondation Custodia / Collection Frits Lugt121, rue de Lille - 75007 ParisFranceTel: +33 (0)1 47 05 75 19coll.lugt@fondationcustodia.frwww.fondationcustodia.fr Access by public transport Metro: Assemblée Nationale (line 12) or Invalides (lines 8 and 13)RER C: Invalides or Musée d’OrsayBus: lines 63, 73, 83, 84, 94, Assemblée NationaleVélib’: station opposite (n° 7009) Opening hours Every day except Monday, from 12 to 6 pm The Fondation Custodia is closed on 25 December and 1 January Admission charges 10 € (full) / 7 € (reduced)The reduced rate is available to seniors (over 60), unemployed people, groups of at least 10 people Free admission: students, press card, ICOM card, disabled person’s card No online reservations
Exhibition curators: Ger Luijten, director of the Fondation Custodia and Jan Piet Filedt Kok, honorary director of collections of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Press Partners: