DOPPELMENSCH MARTIN ASSIG DIRK ZOETE 09 FEBRUary - 16 MARCH 2025

The exhibition Doppelmensch brings together the work of two artists who know and admire each other’s work. In their art Martin Assig and Dirk Zoete both focus on the basic things of existence, what is means to be human in every aspect and the longing for a life in harmony with nature and the world.

Martin Assig (1959) has been working on his so called St. Paul series since 2009 in which he indirectly refers to Paul Klee, who used multiple styles and motifs in parallel in his work. With the St. Paul series Martin Assig created a container in which he can quote, refer to other artists and his own work and can vary from concrete human figures to abstract patterns and shapes. The combination of text and images that is often also present in Paul Klee’s work is typical.

In his work Martin Assig focuses on the essential things of life; how does man relate to others, to the world, life and death. He portrays these serious, sometimes heavy themes in a moving way, often with lightness and humor that lifts up the viewer. In 2017 he added the Seelen (Souls) series, in which he can also refer to life after death, the domain of the soul. The exhibition features a selection of works from the St. Paul and Seelen series, as well as two monumental works on panel and smaller ink drawings.

Dirk Zoete (1969) also often works in series. After his drawings of theatrical stages with human figures, buildings and constructions, he started his series Study for Cactus Species and subsequently the Cactus Derivatives series. In these works Dirk Zoete uses abstract basic shapes with which he reinvents the cactus and allows organic shapes to can change into for instance some sort of small machine with blades. He thus creates an imaginary herbarium that breathes a playful freedom and a fascination for the wonder of nature. The exhibition also includes a Cactus Derivatives drawing executed in embroidery on textile by Els Huygelen, Dirk Zoete’s partner.

Over the past years, Dirk Zoete has also made more and more spatial work, stylized human figures, again made up of geometric shapes. They are a kind of distant cousins ​​of Kazimir Malevich’s suprematist figures or the costumes from Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet. They move the viewer through their extreme simplicity and playfulness. Very recently Dirk Zoete made a number of drawings of landscapes in Puglia, southern Italy, with stylized trees, fields and figures. These drawings are colourful and correspond to his Colour Studies in which people in costumes are presented on a stage. In Doppelmensch Dirk Zoete shows sculptures and drawings that are presented in a dialogue with Martin Assig’s works.

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