Picture marble

Painted marble structures can be seen as early as in Pompejan private houses. However, the actual stucco marble would not be invented until around 1600. The technique was developed simultaneously in Southern Germany and Italy independently of each other. The method is not only an imitation of the appearance of the marble but a manual re-enactment of the geological process the marble has undergone. Therefore, different colored clusters of plaster are kneaded together and then cut into slices. Those slices are put together and after hardening they are polished. Of course, the craftsmen didn’t end up imitating real marble but creating fantastic new stones of unseen color combinations and structures. This man-made marble was soon valued higher than the real one.

It is in this field between imitation and reinvention that Jeroen Geel’s Picture marbles can be placed. Unlike the work of a painter in his pictorial quest, he is not adding paint on a surface but forming color itself. Therefore, the process is alike the work of a baker. When those plaster-doughs are cut open it shows whether the creation was successful. A lot of unforeseen elements take place during the creation process upon which the artist reacts by carving out forms and lines and filling them up with color again. He is guided by associations of structures reminiscent of meat, wood, marble, linoleum and many others or he is trying to create an illusion of depth in the two dimensional plate.
After the building-process, when the pattern is revealed, the artist is often disappointed and puts the plate aside. But after some weeks when the initial idea is forgotten, he realises that the plate is a valid result of his experiment. He looks at it with fresh eyes and continues working on it.

The disappointment he exposes himself to becomes a revelation. It is this transformation that is fundamental to his work and that manifests itself in Jeroen Geels Picture marbles. The beholder is irritated – fine, straight lines run across the fake marble and reveal the illusion. At a closer look one finds exact repetitions of pretend-to-be natural forms in some of the plates. Those were scratched out and filled with material by the artist.
The examination of our perception of material is a central theme in Jeroen Geel’s work. In the engagement with difficult techniques and complex materials his ideas have to find new ways to manifest themselves. It’s the constant gain of insight what prompts his work.

Sara Leuthold