Peter Keizer

In the Netherlands the word plethora is seldom used. That is unfortunate, because it accurately expresses what it is all about when it comes to objects of visual and plastic arts that are physically present, such as the paintings and sculptures of Peter Keizer. The literal translation of the Greek word plèthõrè is overabundance. In the medical world the term is used to identify an excess of blood or body fluid. In a more general sense, however, plethora refers to the pleasing abundance of beauty. With his sculptures and paintings, Peter Keizer makes clear that abundance does not harm. To him, plethora is a welcome and beneficent phenomenon. In a snug and comfortable way he rubs against the experience of beauty and at the same time stimulates and whets the senses.

How much overabundance can a person take? In sculpture gallery ‘Het Depot’ we see, along with other creations, an installation consisting of forty-nine glass-blown women’s breasts, lying seductively on wooden dolphins. Together these objects form a type of plaza appropriately entitled ‘The Fountain of Life’. Unsuspecting visitors of the plaza are deluged by sources of life: a sea of breasts with scarlet nipples. Full of life too and filled with lust and passion is ‘Goddess of Fertility’, an enormous sculpture that is impossible to miss. Keizer assembled this statue out of wooden sections that he glued together and then modelled. Isis, a three-metre high torso, incorporates balsa, yew, cypress, sequoia and purpleheart.

In his paintings, sculptures and installations, Peter Keizer elevates, sublimates and intensifies physical perception. Bodily experience is an inalienable component of his artistry and personality. Perfectioning is a key aspect. Not because he regards observed reality as inadequate but because he wants to capture, fix and anchor in visual art the overwhelming experience of this reality. That leads to clusters of intensity, corporality and activity. Growth and blossom, desire and the erotic, they reach their peak in sculptures and paintings that often fall victim to exaggeration. Humour, understatement and the ability to put things into perspective provide the counterweight that is needed to prevent the artist from going too far in his enthusiasm and unbridled urge to create.

A few years ago Peter Keizer started to feel a growing urge to produce artistic creations that he could literally walk around. He changed course drastically. A recent series of ceramic sculptures was the result. Comparative product research leads to the surprising conclusion that, in substance, Keizer’s work has not changed a great deal. The language that the artist speaks in his paintings turns out to lend itself perfectly for conversion to the idiom of the art of sculpture. The almost sensual modelling of amorphous clay can well be compared to the pastuous paintings that resonate the unadulterated urge of expression. Keizer burrows, gouges and scrapes in the wet clay as if ploughing through fresh paint layers with messy brushes. The handwriting in his sculptures and paintings clearly match. In recent paintings the blossoms are literally moulded on the canvas in thick daubs. On the other hand, he paints statues, objects and self-made pedestals according to the standard principles of painting. Sometimes he even pastes stickers on the ceramic sculptures before they are placed in the oven. He does this in order to enhance the pictural impact. That is how one of his first sculptures, a torso decorated with flowers, entitled ‘She is … She is not …’ came about, as well as sculptures of body fragments with strange codings on crucial parts.