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Critical review by Alessia Perone, Art Curator at M.A.D.S. Gallery Milano

Julien van Middendorp


“Every artist has been inspired by the beauty of lines and colors and their intersection of use, rather than by the concrete subject of the painting.” (Piet Mondrian)


Julien van Middendorp is a Dutch abstract painter with a well-defined style that emerges from each of his paintings. Within his artistic and aesthetic conception, Julien uses primary colors on large canvases in order to make his works extremely connected as in a musical symphony where the various tones express liveliness

and vitality.


Although his paintings are purely abstract, one can perceive different figures that characterize the pictorial surface. Moreover, the different themes and key messages can be deduced from the titles of the works themselves. In “Alien Blueprint”, nuances with precise meanings emerge: yellow is linked to solar energy, red to the union between light and space and blue is a symbol of spirituality; everything is skillfully arranged in a compositional order that seeks a formal and chromatic balance.


Exactly as in the works of Piet Mondrian, Julien emphasizes line and color, creating a relationship between universal order and natural reality that allows it to be reduced to an essential plastic vision. As the curved lines meet, they form a central, horizontal pattern anchored to the central axis. Around this form, a grid is arranged symmetrically to form an abstract and balanced composition. The presence of geometric figures of different sizes provides stability to the entire composition.


Through black and white, the artist expresses harmony and rigor as opposed to cosmic disorder, with the aim of achieving a representation of the immutable truth of things, in favor of a painting that is independent and itself pure expression. Moreover, imagination plays a crucial role in this work and in Julien’s creative process: each element is arranged on the canvas like musical notes that his unconscious has composed in an energetic and dynamic rhythm.


“I want to get as close as possible to the truth, so I can abstract everything until I arrive at the fundamental quality of the objects.” (Piet Mondrian)


Art Curator Alessia Perone





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