Carousel, Shelter, Cloud 2016
Shelter, Carousel and Cloud – 2016
The cheerful playground attracts children and their parents, inviting them to have joys time on swings, carousels and slides - right next to the civil shelter, with its heavy mass of concrete, iron door and tiny ventilation openings. This juxtaposition raises disturbing questions about existence under the constant shadow of threat and insecurity. In several works a heavy cloud is suspended above, at the top of the composition, intimidating and warning from the possibility of approaching storm (works 1-7).
Bunkers – 2014-2016
It is a sense of Deja-vu that drove de Lange to paint, once again, the bunkers along the Dutch coastline - the same ones that he drew in the late 1970s and early 80s. The works painted in 2014 are more expressive than their early counterparts, they resist gravity and demonstrate an awareness of the destructive potential and recurring nature of threats and wars (works 8-12).