A FACTORY OF ART: DE KUNSTFABRIEK

Text: Cathy Harris

It all started as a kind of joke, really. A hobby. But it filled a need and grew into a viable enterprise with increasing success. In the five years of its existence The Art Factory has sold 2000 oil paintings: landscapes, cows, nudes, still lifes, Van Goghs, dogs and cats, interiors, portraits and details of old Master paintings - each and every one of them an original, thus unique.

They both were enthusiastic amateur painters: Jan Peter van Doorn and Bert-Jan van Egteren. They met because they were neighbors. Jan Peter had made a career in advertising, Bert-Jan worked as a contemporary art expert at Christie's auction house. They both loved art, but not the elite aspect of it, the prices, the snobbism, the lack of craftsmanship. Art should be more accessible, they felt, more transparent, for everybody. And then they came up with an idea, a refreshingly unpretentious new concept in the art world: De Kunstfabriek, a factory which produces art. Where you can buy a huge oil painting for a very reasonable price. Created in Holland, executed by artists in China.
"Most people like to have a realistic painting in their house, but the problem is oil paintings are very labor intensive and expensive," Jan Peter explains. "What we have done is to split up the painting process in two parts: the concept and the execution. The two of us, aided by a team of Dutch designers, photographers and computer designers take care of the concept. And the execution takes place in China."
"Chinese artists are well-known for the quality of their realistic work," co-founder Bert-Jan adds. "Most contemporary artists in Holland work with multimedia these days, but Chinese art academies still belong to the old school. Chinese artists are affordable and they are incredibly good, better than a lot of Dutch painters."
Some time ago, Hanneke Verschuur, an art historian specialized in art before 1800, joined Jan Peter and Bert-Jan at the Kunstfabriek's office. "She shares our enthusiasm for what we are trying to do and is a tower of strength," they tell me.
Needless to say, The Art Factory has incited a great deal of criticism and wrath from the established art world: "This is kitsch, not art!" But the two art entrepreneurs don't care. "To us the only thing that's really important if whether the buyers like the paintings or not."

OLD MASTERS WITH A FACE-LIFT
From 12 October through 16 November
Details from Famous Old Dutch and Flemish Masters at De Kunstfabriek
The beauty and craftsmanship of the Dutch and Flemish masters from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are hard if not impossible to equal. Nevertheless the Art Factory has endeavored to present their works with a new, contemporary look.
How? Bert Jan van Egteren: "We took special details from these paintings, the Madonna from a Jan van Eyck painting, only the face from a Rubens portrait, the milk jug from Vermeer's Milkmaid. These details we blew up to a huge format - the finished paintings are sometimes 120 x 160 cms and even larger.
Jan Peter van Doorn: "The effect we have achieved with this classical line surpasses all expectations. We not only enlarged details from the old masters, but also played with the compositions. It is alienating and enchanting at the same time to see the icons of Dutch painting given a face-lift. The technique of oil on canvas has remained the same, but the context of our paintings is four hundred years away from Vermeer's era and that makes this series truly unique."
The Dutch Masters at the Art Factory are for sale, of course. For prices ranging from Euro 600 to Euro 1500.

DE KUNSTFABRIEK
Haarlemmerweg 315-d
Tel. 4889430; fax 4889410; e-mail info@dekunstfabriek.com
www.dekunstfabriek.com