{"id":54855,"date":"2025-01-03T14:22:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T19:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=54855"},"modified":"2025-01-03T14:39:40","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T19:39:40","slug":"interview-with-harold-klunder-at-clint-roenisch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=54855","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Harold Klunder at Clint Roenisch Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Interview with Harold Klunder (HK) by Antonella Pecora Ruiz (APR)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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This interview with Harold Klunder and his daughter Elizabeth (EK) provides insight into the beginning of his artistic ambitions, creative process and his exhibition, Then and Now<\/em>, at the Clint Roenisch Gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APR:<\/strong> After moving to Canada from the Netherlands in 1952, would you say that your family encouraged you to become an artist or was it your idea?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HK:<\/strong> My mother was supportive; I would have to say that. She understood that I was different than my brothers who worked at Stelco in Hamilton, as I did, for half a year. I knew it wasn\u2019t what I wanted to do. My mom certainly realized that I had other abilities\u2014even though I grew up on a farm, and loved working with my dad as a kid\u2014I knew what I wanted to do. Someone who was teaching in Ontario said, \u2018Oh, you should look into night classes.\u2019 So then I took a night class, and that was the beginning of being very serious about painting, drawing and art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APR:<\/strong> After enrolling in Central Tech (1960-64), you started learning from a range of artists and were influenced by others like Dorothy McCarthy and Henry Moore while also mastering several mediums. When did your interest in painting begin?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HK:<\/strong> Well, we did have painting as a class and museum studies. But I was already interested in painting by looking at books. So, I learned about painters of the past. Even to this day, I learn about a different artist every week; having collected a substantial amount of art books over the course of my life and I look at them daily. But at that time, I just started looking at paintings and become more and more interested in the whole idea of doing it myself.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Harold Klunder, Untitled, 1962, oil on canvas, 18 x 14.25 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EK:<\/strong> You were painting in the shed that was attached to your parents\u2019 house before you took any official art classes\u2014that work is, in some ways, very similar to your current work. Like, it was always leaning in the direction of abstraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APR:<\/strong> Would you consider your work to be abstract? Because when I went to the exhibition, I felt like there were a lot of faces, so it\u2019s not like it was exactly abstract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HK:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think of myself as an abstract painter. That\u2019s an oversimplification in my mind because I have an active interest in all painting, and it\u2019s not necessarily abstract. Some people might naively think, \u2018Oh, this is abstract art,\u2019 but there is usually some kind of sense of faces. I think when people are looking at the work and looking at it long enough, then it\u2019s more than abstract painting; it\u2019s full of life in a way. Abstraction is a simplistic-sounding term to me.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Harold Klunder, July 1, July 2, July 3, 2001\u20132010, oil on canvas, 44 x 84 inches (triptych)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EK:<\/strong> Yesterday, when I asked him if he thinks his work is abstract, he said maybe it\u2019s more a kind of inner realism. \u2018Inner realism\u2019 like what you feel inside and what you\u2019re thinking about, and it comes out in a combination. It\u2019s a strange representation of yourself in a way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HK:<\/strong> I think that\u2019s what art is; it\u2019s just how you see the world, right? I think that\u2019s what I\u2019m considering as inner realism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APR:<\/strong> There is a lot of motion within your paintings. I mostly felt it in the vivacity of the colours you chose. I believe your work, \u201cFuture, Present, and Past\u201d is one of the best at demonstrating your mastery of colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HK:<\/strong> Yeah, colour is a big factor in all my work, and it always has been. But even when you use colour, you have to kind of frame the colour in some way, so the drawing is sort of, to some degree, framing the works anyway. And colour is very emotive, you know. You can say a lot by combinations of colours. I\u2019m moved by the potential of what that colour will do to what I\u2019ve already done on the canvas.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Harold Klunder, Future, Present, Past (Self-Portrait #2), 1985\u20131987, oil on canvas, 96 x 235 inches (triptych)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EK:<\/strong> It\u2019s changing the energy of that certain part of the painting, to make it feel lighter or darker, louder or quieter. You\u2019re bringing something forward and still letting other things go into the painting sometimes. It seems like you are interested in a combination of things and how they can create harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APR:<\/strong> Are there any external elements which play a role in your creative process?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HK:<\/strong> Music is a big aspect. I listen to music all the time. I listen to the radio to the classic station, but it\u2019s a full range, really. I definitely like Pavarotti.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Harold Klunder, Music #IV, 2015\u20132017, oil on canvas, 84 x 84 inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EK:<\/strong> The first painting on the right when you go into the exhibition is called \u201cNessun Dorma\u201d. It\u2019s named after that song my parents played when me and my sister would go to sleep. Then also other types of music he really likes such as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Neil Young.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Harold Klunder, Nessum Dorma, 2021\u20132024, oil on canvas, 72 x 132 inches (diptych)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APR:<\/strong> That is a great range of musicians. Are there any painters who have influenced you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HK:<\/strong> Dutch painters are particularly interesting because I left Holland when I was very young, and somehow that\u2019s stuck in my mind, partly because of my mom. She had some understanding of Van Gogh. She felt he was misunderstood and he was actually challenged in his own ways because he was a futurist in his era. So, it\u2019s interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APR:<\/strong> Now that we\u2019ve delved into your creative process, what is it like to see your work once it is finished and displayed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HK:<\/strong> In a funny way, the show reminded me of what my work actually looks like, because creating them is just an ongoing process. Then, all of a sudden, I\u2019m seeing a whole room full of my work. I am trying to put those pieces all together in my brain, thinking, \u2018What is it? What is actually happening?\u2019 I was really blown away by the really large painting that\u2019s on the main wall in the back of the gallery (\u201cFuture, Present, Past\u201d). When I walked into Clint Roenisch Gallery, at first, and saw how he hung the show\u2014I had nothing to do with that \u2014I thought that he\u2019s brilliant at doing that.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Installation view of Harold Klunder, Then and Now<\/em> at Clint Roenisch Gallery<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EK:<\/strong> The works that are featured at the Clint Roenisch Gallery right now literally span over 60 years, from the first one he made when he was very young (\u201cUntitled,\u201d 1962) and the one that he just finished; it\u2019s been just under 62 years. The viewers can witness his artistic evolution, even if some works look different from others. I think artworks look different at different times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APR: <\/strong>This has been a really interesting conversation, thank you! I hope that viewers will come out with a richer understanding of Harold Klunder\u2019s career; having contemplated the wonderful idea of \u2018inner realism\u2019 that creates the narrative of each of his unique paintings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images are courtesy of Clint Roenisch Gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Exhibition information: Harold Klunder, Then and Now<\/em>, November 21 \u2013 January 11, 2024, Clint Roenisch Gallery, 190 St. Helens Street, Toronto. Gallery hours: Wed \u2013 Sat 12 \u2013 5 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Antonella Pecora Ruiz<\/strong><\/p>\n

The exhibition span over 60 years of Kluder’s career and artistic evolution.<\/p>\n

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