Kades-Kaden, 1987

About the Work

Kades-Kaden is a play on words that involves the bringing together of two interchangeable plural forms. In several of his works, the Dutch artist treats the motif of a group of stylised buildings pressed closely together in reference to the houses massed along the grachten in Amsterdam. Frequently provided with writing, the houses thereby become books, and the grachten turn into libraries. His works oscillate between painting and concept just as between figuration and abstraction. They clarify the degree to which language and Concept Art flow into the painting of the 1980s.