Jan Dibbets

Every work which Dibbets makes is done with endless patience, precision, and subtlety. The subject matter may appear both obvious and mundane at a cursory glance, but his images repay attention, not only because they are constructed with such deliberation, but also because he is primarily concerned with the human perception of our surroundings.

This exhibition consists of ten photographs of windows, a subject which first appeared in his work of the early 1980s. The photographs were taken in several different countries between 1988 and 1997, but are now brought together for the first time in one portfolio. The precision with which Dibbets photographs the windows imbues them with a stillness and serenity typical of Dutch painting over the centuries, most famously exemplified by Vermeer.

Each window is depicted from a very particular, carefully chosen angle. Dibbets thus places us at a quite specific point in relation to the window, and asks us to consider afresh the subtlety and beauty of his chosen subjects.

Dibbets was trained as an art teacher in the early 1960s and his widespread influence on younger generations of artists is as much due to his continuing involvement with teaching as to the presence of examples of his work in numerous galleries and almost all major museums throughout the world.