Catalogue The Great Invocation

Until 1980 Jan Kervezee experimented with drugs practically every day. He attempted to capture the images from his intoxication on canvas as directly and accurately as possible. Or he simply started drawing and let the image develop; a process he compares with drawing doodles while talking on the telephone. Because of his absentmindedness Kervezee was often surprised by the work he produced, as if it came from distant ancestors or another planet.

Kervezee either produced more or less typical outsider art or he created landscapes with vast perspectives and atmospheric depth, complemented with human figures and symbols of the occult. His work after 1980, however, is characterised by what he himself calls ‘quietness’: atmospheric landscapes without any sign of life, in which the atmosphere is mainly determined by colour.