The ways of the art are infinite, as it should be, and often the sacred fire that makes a painting alive, that molds and gives life to matter, lays in disguise for years, finding rivulets, streams through which reach the surface, to timidly announce itself and finally become, after many years, a river in full flood. This is the case of Joahnnes Genemans, a true Dutchman, with his roots in a land rich of art and intuitions, both artistic and economic which, when “blended” in a special bond, are able to produce extraordinary wonders.
Genemans could feel the art run through his veins, but his drawings, his sculptures were fashion creations, shoes which would combine in a very original way the “made in Italy” with the Dutch style. A series of successes made his European brand Opanka well known, between the end of the 70’s and the beginning of the 80’s. And because of such a fruitful season, he decided to leave his country and move his high end business to Civitanova, choosing the slopes of the fascinating Monteconero as his new home, a place undoubtly able to reveal and enhance his primordial artisitic instinct. And so, in 1993, at the age of 51, he decided to make room for his original vocation and, after having sold all his commercial and industrial business, he approached sculpting with the same enthusiasm as always. He started shaping clay, plaster, bronze and marble. He refined his tecnique by following courses and great masters (such as Prof. Sansoni) until he reached his busts, trophies, figurative works which capture the essence of reality, loyally interpret the truth, yet all seem animated by an intense light, a deep yearning, an almost mystic tension.
His harmonious and elegant women, with suffering or enraptured expressions, with their style and their refined discretion, slowly invade the artistic environment of the Marche (and elsewhere), immediately providing the feeling of being faced with a new artisitc “phenomenon”. And this is exactly what the jury members of the 13th San Remo International Contemporary Art Festival must have thought, one of the most prestigious European events, where Genemans earned the gold medal when he participated for the first time with his heavenly “Altea, Rising Sun”, the bust of a woman pushed out to the sky, to love, dragging pain maybe, but mostly hope. Genemans is now in full ownership of the technique and of the soul of his art; he has learned to bridle the rage of that stream of thoughts and artisitc resources that has flown underground for years in his other activities, only surfacing from time to time. His big bronze triptych is the proof of his maturity and his extraordinary sensitivity, besides being proof of a technique that almost seems “deposited” a long time before. Angelica dances lightly, in a plastic way, just barely hanging on the toes of her left foot, captured in the moment of a both magically phisical and internal balance.
A spiritual dance step that Ninfea, the second piece of the triptych, recaptures and hurls towards the sky, in all her golden prosperity, in her sinuous embrace of powerful and explosive emotions, that only happyness and love can give.
And then she relaxes, enjoys the sun and the see of the Conero Riviera, in the extraordinary pose of Gardenia, finally serene, alive, ready to spring again and indulge in the sensuality of the movement, but now simply resting on her heels to receive the ray of sun, the breath, the pleasure of being and indulging.
Statues in the park, finely modeled, inspired to classical style, but bearers of a new and stimulating message, a sensual dynamism that makes thoughts, their interpretation and vision almost tangible.
Johannes Genemans lives and works in his atelier in Via dei Tigli in Numana, flanking his sculpting, which still follows the instinct and curiosity that characterise every moment of his live, with the passion for drawing, for photography, all expressions of the same desire to read, reinterpret and offer to us his reality made of beauty and elegance.
Giancarlo Trapanese (Journalist and Writer)
