Ronald Ophuis

Ronald Ophuis (born 1968 in Hengelo, Netherlands) is a Dutch artist. His paintings represent acts of physical, sexual and psychological violence and elicit strong emotional responses. For this reason, they are often considered to be controversial.

Biography

Ophuis grew up in the Twente region of the Netherlands and now lives and works in Amsterdam. He studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam (1988–1990) and the AKI Academy for Art & Design in Enschede (1990–1993). Ophuis' painting technique involves building up and scraping away paint to create rough textures. In 2010, Ophuis traveled to Sierra Leone to interview former child soldiers and painted a series of portraits of them. A camera crew traveled with him to film the documentary Painful Painting. The documentary focuses on the process of painting The Bet, Boy or Girl (2012), which depicts four soldiers restraining a pregnant woman before cutting her open to learn the unborn child's sex. This painting is based on a story one of the interviewees told Ophuis.

Controversies In 1997, Ophuis' painting Sweet Violence (1996), which depicts three men sexually abusing two children, was removed from an exhibition in the Bergkerk in Deventer after public outcry. Ophuis filed and won a lawsuit, but now considers this a "Pyrrhic victory".

Historical and contemporary examples Ophuis’ paintings can be related to the tradition of history painting in which he follows the Realistic mode. His works shows similarities with works by realistic history painters such as Édouard Manet. Like in Manet's painting The Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1867), the Ophuis’ paintings show a single moment in a most neutral way. Rather than the victim, the perpetrator is in the centre of the scene. Also, there are no clues of a pre-history, or of a closure. There is no dramatic lightning that suggests an unfolding of time. In short there are no metaphysical and moral dimensions which are so predominant in a biblical scene.

His large works from the last few years demonstrate how he has primarily looked to the nineteenth century for references; to the likes of Goya, Géricault, Delacroix, Courbet and Manet (a tradition continued in the 20th century by Picasso, Golub and Richter, with Jeff Wall as the contemporary exponent).

In present time Ophuis’ paintings can be compared to David Fincher’s film Fight Club (1999). Just like the paintings the film gives no answer whether it condemns or celebrates the violence it shows. The film and the paintings are therefore often subject to the same critique. The viewer expects a representation to be a sequence of events, or a source of information. In relation to the majority of mass media representations, Ophuis is as exceptional as Fincher. Ophuis is not performing a representational practice in which the viewer is directed in how to process or digest the representation, especially when it concerns issues of violence. Ophuis does not give a direction in his paintings and the viewer is compelled to make his own moral judgement.

Legacy

Museums and institutions Ronald Ophuis' work has been on show at:

Centraal Museum, Utrecht Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig GEMAK, The Hague Zoya Museum, Slovakia Museum Jan Cunen, Oss Kunsthal, Rotterdam Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam Museum De Vleeshal, Haarlem Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam De Appel, Amsterdam Gemeentemuseum Den Haag The Hague Kunstraum Innsbruck

Awards 2004 Jeanne Oosting Prize 2002 Nomination Wolvecamp Prize 1998 Charlotte Köhler Prize 1997 Kunstprijs Provincie Overijssel