Study for an assassination 2019

Curator: Jarik Jongman's oil painting, "Study for an Assassination," completed in 2019, confronts us with a darkly rendered, yet vividly expressive, scene. Editor: My first impression is one of deep unease. The figures are so obscured, the setting indistinct, that it feels like witnessing something clandestine, something not meant to be seen. Curator: Jongman's Neo-Expressionist approach is evident in the way he uses heavy impasto and muddied tones to create this unsettling atmosphere. Notice how the composition, with its stark contrasts of light and shadow, builds tension, and also directs our gaze strategically across the canvas. Editor: The narrative here is clearly driven by paranoia and hidden power. Who is planning what? The ambiguity surrounding these figures and the potential target invites us to contemplate societal forces, who’s directing who, and the invisible strings of manipulation that are so prevalent in contemporary existence. There’s a critical message concerning power and social hierarchies that simmers beneath the surface of these abstract forms. Curator: I agree. The brushwork is exceptionally energetic and urgent, the colour choices evoke a feeling of claustrophobia, but these formal techniques create an effect of disorientation, reflecting the subject’s state of anxiety about authority and control. Editor: Consider the use of light here – it’s not illuminating truth, but casting doubt. It makes one wonder who the assassins and who the victims are and also what Jongman means for us to derive in how he creates these individuals to be practically faceless. They almost become every person, a collective, with dark forces controlling them. Curator: Ultimately, "Study for an Assassination" succeeds through its calculated use of materiality and space. Editor: And prompts us to interrogate not only the assassination as a subject, but as a metaphor. The systematic character assassination performed in today’s media, in order to oppress or dehumanize a group—an everyday attack with very real ramifications.