Contest 11 – Winner Interview – Wim Heldens

Interviewed by - Pragati Surana https://www.instagram.com/pragatisurana.ch/

Please tell us about your journey as an artist.

I started painting as soon as I could hold a brush. Experimenting with all  kinds of materials I could get my hands on. The father of my best friend was an artist, and through him I got to meet many local artists.

As a teenager I got more serious about painting, in which I was greatly encouraged by an aunt and the mother of a friend. My parents were both interested in art and had a collection of paintings by my friends father. My mother studied art-history for a while and my parents had many artbooks in wich I could loose myself completely, my parents did not, however, encourage me to become an artist, fearing I would never make a living. Well...they should not have given met that oilpaint-case for my 17^th birthday, because since then there was no way back for me.

I got rejected at Dutch art academies  (it was the beginning of many rejections in my home country, and I still get rejected here these days )....in the end I got accepted at the academy in Frankfurt, but decided to go my own way, and became a completely self taught artist.

For a long time I was just another young struggling artist, always working hard and improving my skills. In Early 1991 I went to New York City, there things started to change for me because in NYC my talent was recognized. In 1995 however I was arrested at JFK Airport for violating immigration rules and sent back to NL. From then on I started to focus on London, in 1998 I won The Menena Joy Schwab award in The Mall Galleries and that painting was purchased by The Arnot Art Museum In Elmira New York.

In 2011 I won the BP Portrait Award in The National Portrait Gallery also in London, and in 2022 I won the ModPortrait In Barcelona Spain.

My work has been selected many times for international competitions such as: BP Portrait Award London, Figurativas Spain, Modportrait Spain, Almenara collection also in Spain.

What is your medium and why did you choose it?

I paint in oil, it has always naturally been the right medium that fits my artistic temperament.

I really love the smooth feeling of mixing oils and the deep warm colours.

What was the inspiration behind this work?

An important theme in my work is uplifting marginalized people through portraiture. Driven by my humanist convictions, I want to show the viewer that the "other" is not so different.

"Fever" is a portrait of my adopted son Musanje, a queer refugee from Uganda. He is  my muse, and I have already painted him 17 times.

This portrait is very personal; he was sick and had a fever. I was simultaneously worried about him not feeling well, and grateful and relieved that he is no longer in danger in Uganda, but with me in the Netherlands where I could take care of him.

I am deeply touched by the story of his life and his resilience and his compassion.

In a world where hostility towards refugees seems to be constantly increasing, I find it important to use my talent to make a strong counter-voice heard.

Who is your favorite artist? Why?

My 2 favorite artists are Caravaggio and Vermeer, who are both in many ways on the opposite sides of artistic expression.

Caravaggio being “loud”, up in your face, his paintings slap you around the ears with their intensity. Vermeer is very quiet, in most paintings you get the uncomfortable feeling you are seeing something you are not supposed to see and all that painted in an incredible light that is still clear as the day so many centuries later. But both of them paint about the human soul, they have in common that they paint aboutthe human drama.

Recently I have discovered 2 artists from Nigeria I admire greatly: John Akande and Okoye Emeka John Castro, both of them are amazing artist who paint people in the depths of their soul