Marc Mulders

The pastel hues in the painting Hunt for Paradise (Hope) 19.09.20 (2020) are soft, light and floral. But in this idyllic garden there appear dark forms with groping tentacles. This large painting, the first of a series produced in the summer of 2020, brings together diverse tendencies in the work of Marc Mulders.

For more than thirty years, gardens and flowers have been a source of inspiration to Mulders. Among the works in De Pont's collection are Peonies, turban buttercups VII (1996), Bloemenweide (2011) and Let the desert bloom (2017). Characteristic of the later work, in particular, is the light that seems to shine through the paint.

The dark areas in this painting have a very different character. Shady intruders invade the luminous garden. Paradise is being threatened and must be defended. For Mulders this battle became real when he discovered, in the summer of 2020, that contaminated soil was being illegally dumped on the Oostelbeers country estate Baest, where he lives and works. Mulders has frequently expressed criticism and concern about mankind's arrogance and egotism, about excessive consumption, the health risks of intensive livestock farming and the reckless approach to everything that is vulnerable, whether it be people, animals or nature reserves. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the fears that he had had for some time were confirmed. The period in which this painting came about was overshadowed by the menacing atmosphere of the pandemic.

The gardens of paint that Mulders creates on his canvases represent his desire for a harmonious and spiritual way of dealing with nature. By now allowing the ominous hues of black into Hunt for Paradise (Hope) 19.09.20, he gives the work a great intensity and tension.