TheatreArt Exhibition

West End productions Les Misérables, RENT & The Lion King are among shows that have provided the inspiration for the TheatreArt exhibition opening in London on the 5th of August.

The exhibition includes 22 paintings and six bronze statues created by Dutch artist Andrew Aué.

Every exhibition is based upon his passion for the theatre. Andrew regards London the most interesting city, where all professional art-forms come together in the many theatres. He thoroughly enjoys modern and innovative musicals. Even after thirty years he still discovers new theatres.

The streets of London are paved with hundreds of small, big and huge theatres, not only in The West End. It is a joy to experience how well-known and unknown performers work together and share their passion. Rarely out of tune, always fully motivated. This is what Andrew enjoys most and what inspires him.

The theatre is probably the most outspoken art form where man, as an individual within society, recognises himself and can experience sometimes suppressed emotions through the performance on stage. In the theatre we come across reality in all its facets in a compressed, of rather an abstracted form. The individualism of man, an important fact in present-day society, is found again in the theatre in a way in which mostly one actor or object at a time is in the spotlight. The rest of the stage is veiled in darkness, as soon as an actor no longer plays a role, the light is turned off and he seems to be absorbed into the background. All attention is focused on the figures in the spotlight and the audience is willingly carried along through this manipulation.

Andrew Aue is fascinated by all these aspects of the theatre. All his work is related to the theatre, and thus also to reality. In fact his work always deals with the imagination of an abstract reality, an attempt to penetrate through the several layers of reality and to put these on paper or canvas with the utmost concentration using as few means as possible. The viewer can project his own experiences and perceptions into the works.

In his recent work the imagination is truly given space by Aué. A great freedom is revealed from the use of colour and composition. They are an obvious part of the surface of the painting. Figures break away from the background, but also vanish again and appear to be swallowed up by the surface of the painting.