In the mid-seventies Eli Content (Vevey, Switzerland, 1943) made his debut with extremely severe-looking, minimalistic paintings. At the same time he also made much looser cut outs with Matisse-like ornaments. This freedom he has always granted himself. He cannot and will not deprive himself nor the beholder.
In a letter dated October 12th 21012 he writes: “The world that I want to show is more than just one uniform thing –as is usual in the art world- my world is manifold and is not restricted by just one style.
In the Netherlands the highest a painter/artist can achieve is to be like Mondriaan. I am afraid that more often than not this is anxious, fearful behaviour. Much of this New Objectivity has yielded a terrible loneliness.”
His whole life he has been fascinated by the account of the Creation as described in the Bible Book of Genesis. “Whether this is true or not is unimportant to me. It is true because I think it is beautiful. It tells us about the animals that were there before us, about the trees, plants and the creation of man.” This narration is crucial in the monumental window piece (The Creation of Man – Male and Female, 2012) and the little house (Paradise, 2012), both erected from painted over, fragile old newspapers. In both works he also goes back to one of his older themes, his fascination that the letters in the alphabet can basically contain all knowledge and keep this alive. Together with birds, fishes, plants, trees and human figures the letters of the Hebrew alphabet crowd his installation in Galerie Onrust. He celebrates the freedom to give his art any form he likes, free from a fixed style or any dogmatism in high-spirited paintings, drawings, artists books and installations. A selection of recent works can be seen under the title It’s not a house...it’s a home. Or the world according to Eli Content.
