Bert Menco

Suspended
pencil/color drawing
24 x 18 in.

Bert Menco is a Dutch artist who came to the USA more than 20 years ago. Though they may seem simple, his drawings and prints are actually elaborate; half a year’s work on an image is no exception. He draws directly or uses small sketches, even doodles, as image-generating nuclei, often combining two or three that appear to complement each other. He rarely uses concrete references, but rather works from inner visions. His work tends to be narrative, more precisely, poetic narrative. His images are reflections of inner feelings, similar to some poetry, rather than straight narratives; they are “inside out” and tend to deal with confined spaces that contain certain characters that reach out to one another but do not quite succeed in meeting, in his view a reflection of one of life’s most precarious equilibriums. Hiding behind reality, masking yourself, or trying to show with the mask how you really feel, maybe one’s “normal” face is really a mask, the sad humor of Pulcinella and Harlequino.

© Bert Menco