Robbie Cornelissen (1954) draws complex architecture, baroque portraits and almost abstract representations. In all ‘genres’ the artist’s passion is striking: without exception the representations are highly detailed and drawn with great intensity. Often the drawings are of enormous dimensions (up to 240 x 380 cm). Because of the large size and the unprecedented amount of detail the observer is lured into the picture and then taken by surprise with all sorts of bizarre details, giving the image a new, unexpected meaning. Characteristic is that Robbie Cornelissen always integrates the familiar and the bizarre into something completely matter of course. Robbie Cornelissen, born in Utrecht in 1954, a former biologist, enrolled at the Vrije Akademie in The Hague and, from 1984, studied at the Rietveld Akademie in Amsterdam. During a period of ill health in the late ‘80s he was barely able to work. Hesitantly, he would explore the paper: fragile images began to appear, fantasies from an internal world, opening up new perspectives that enticed him to do more. Since his first show in 1990 he has been exhibiting his works in the most important galleries and museum institutions in the Netherlands. Since 2001 he has been a member of the Committee for Art of Utrecht.
With Love from Crazy Horse
The Capacious Memory