BRITT WIKSTRÖM

Modern art is a conscious search for forms. An impatient one. Conceptual art has been an attempt to shorten the distance from an idea to the work of art. Sculpture defies shortcuts. Forms are physical, but art cannot survive without them.

It takes courage to go against the grain. Not to submit to the rapid, quick, nervous pace of modern artistic tendencies. It takes courage to believe in solid matter, in some finality of form. The sculptures of Britt Wikstrom are a good example of this faith. Endowing matter with meaning is more final, more palpable, more open to the passage of time and the eyes of viewers than either literature or painting.

When confronted with sculptures of Britt Wikström, one thinks of a forgotten language of spiritual values. It does not reach us in the same way mass produced visual information does. Her sculptures are not printouts of an artistic scheme. They testify to careful choices, long maturation, modest proposals. And yet they carry with them the birth pangs of a true work of art, of deliberate, yet spontaneous effort. They do not cry out, they do not force us to pay attention. They offer a slightly withdrawn, intimate invitation to an individual experience. A dialogue.

The author of these invitations, Britt Wikström, born in Lulea Sweden in 1948, was raised in the USA. She started studying art in Munich, finally chose Rotterdam and Amsterdam influenced by H. Rookmaaker, A Teeuwisse, and P.Gregoire as places where her artistic coming of age could be accomplished. She continues to live and work in the Netherlands, her chosen home. Has the choice been determined by a strange mix of mundane realism and the passionate spirituality of the Dutch masters of painting?

Her work defies description. It is not easily classified in terms of schools, trends and fashions. It is not limited to a formal specialization. She creates huge ceramic reliefs (e.g.. Noah's Ark' for the Elout School in Rotterdam) for public spaces, but she is also busy with portrait medallions, portrait busts or gravestones. What all these works have in common is a patient, diligent, stubborn effort of an artist to stay close to everyday, simple events. At the same time they also demonstrate her strong will to reveal the pulse of impatient life flowing through us and our environment. Looking at her sculptures we are being reminded of the sudden joy of a rainbow during a daily walk: a natural phenomenon to be sure, easily melting into an environment, but unforgettable. 'Their feet trod the strange ground of knowledge, their footsteps were lit up with discovery.' (D.H. Lawrence, The Rainbow).

S. Magala - Cultural anthropologist (translated from the Dutch)