Henk de Looper

"The spaces he allows himself to draw are based on observations in an urban environment; a street, a square, a gate. Moreover, it is not about the specific design of the street of the facades of the houses, the openness of a square, the beauty of a gate. It is about the moment of perception, when the atmosphere has the breath of the universal above that of the locally bound..."

"The oval form offers him the actual space in which he can create structures by using different sorts of pencil, by varying the thickness of line and by eroding a line here and there; every now and then he cuts out certain areas from in between the lines structures, and by doing so brings real space into the illusory image."

uit: "Henk de Looper: tekeningen 1990-1995"
Text by Hein van Haaren. Rotterdam:Phoebus,1996
(= Drawings first/Eerst tekeningen; 1)


"In all instances he is working with gradations of light. Formally, this art has a minimalist trait, but the effect is too rich for that term. There are 'shadows' that create an illusion of relief, of ribs on the canvas. It is like the drawings on canvas are humming inaudibly."

uit: Dolf Welling. 1997. "Zoemende lijnen"
Rotterdams Dagblad (22 april)