Artist: Jansen, Han
Title: Centrale ("Central power supply")
Technique: Silkscreen on Fine art paper
size: 51 x 51 cm. (20,1 x 20,1 inch)
Framed: 70,5 x 70,5 cm. (27,75 x 27,75 inch)


More Information
This striking silkscreen by Han Jansen showcases his signature minimalist style, blending bold color fields with geometric clarity. Set against a deep blue sky, a row of white houses with red roofs lines the horizon, subtly connected by a series of power lines. A single house sits apart in the foreground, linked by a thin white path, adding a quiet narrative tension to the composition.

The landscape is abstracted into clean, contrasting layers—black terrain, blue hills, and a vivid sky—creating a sense of space, calm, and isolation. A soft celestial glow in the sky introduces a subtle atmospheric element, while the red border echoes the roofs, unifying the piece.

Jansen’s work balances modernist precision with a poetic sense of place. This silkscreen is a compelling example of his ability to evoke mood and story through minimal means.

Accompanied by a frame and passe-partout.

About the artist

Han Jansen (1940–2021), born in Groningen, the Netherlands, was a Dutch painter best known for his experimental approach to landscape and his innovative use of materials. The son of a Groninger gentleman farmer, Jansen gained recognition for his unconventional methods and willingness to challenge traditional painting techniques, transforming the Dutch landscape tradition through radical experimentation with process and place.

In 1980, Jansen created his celebrated mudflat paintings by sprinkling paint pigments directly into the gullies and trenches of the Wadden Sea, coloring the mudflat bottom in brilliant green, crimson red, and lemon yellow. This audacious intervention in nature itself demonstrated his commitment to dissolving the boundary between painting and environment. He also developed stream paintings, pouring paint onto flat linen and allowing gravity and the canvas structure to shape the work as he tilted the surface. His subjects ranged from the interior of Australia to the land behind his house in Eelderwolde, revealing a restless curiosity about landscape in all its forms.

For fifteen years, Jansen's paintings adorned the covers of the northern magazine Noorderbreedte. His work was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Utrecht, where director Wouter Kotte praised his ability to reimagine creation itself. Art historian Henk van Os noted Jansen's unprecedented ability to renew himself, describing him as a creator in the true sense of the word who took nothing for granted. Jansen's legacy lies in his fearless reinvention of what landscape painting could be.

sku: 9900000064426

Good condition, marginal storage marks.