'Passages' in Kunstzaal Achter de Dom

"If I would not have been an artist, I would have been a doctor." says Max Springer. He feels his art is medicinal, he wants to help people, to make them feel good, and to help children to become sensitive at an early age to their deeper and more profound energies and emotions.

With this message, this 38-year old artist from Los Angeles is now -- for the third time -- guest at the Kunstzaal Achter den Dom (v/h Museum voor Hedensedaagse Kunst). The previous exhibition of this artist -- who has been living and working for quite some time in Utrecht -- was based on the signs of the wolf. This time it is about 'Passages'.

One cannot neglect art from Springer. A permanent installation of his awaits those who pass through the forever so symbolically cracking glass doors at the entrance. On the right side on the wall are wooden panels with an assembled composition of brilliant blue-purple coloured half circles. They are derived from the forms of Tibetan prayer bells. On the left are sharply angled triangular forms, in the same hues, yet oppositional to the bell shapes, creating a dialectic passage. The triangles, called "Understanding Chaos" oppose "Chakras" and seem to hint at the yin -- yang atmosphere that is being explored here.

The accent of this exhibition is in the large wooden panels which are influenced by the space in which they are installed. Springer will not guarantee that the next installation of the works will follow the same arrangements. He plays with his big, wooden, a bit Frank Stella-like 'puzzles'...and he does it with PLEASURE (the title of one of these works). The smoothly painted jig-saw pieces have something far past ideas of little legs, church towers, baroque curled feet of a chair or clouds, they are ripe with modern design.

Springer is searching for the female in these primary shapes. Everything here examines the hidden aspects of our human consciousness. It should be voluminous, and Springer likes big art. He credits Ellsworth Kelly as a prime influence.

The easel paintings also displayed here are an earlier chapter. Hundreds of forms, like musical notes dance across his fabrics (paper and canvas). Springer executes them in various shades which, hard and cool, make me remember the constrains of the color-wheel on which they were designed. Many of his compositions arise from research that Springer does on the computer with fractals of natural forms. He redesigns these forms as they might be modulated by music from the likes of Steve Reich or even his own 'Rock and Roll' compositions. He studies electronic and ethnological music and it has been a strong influence on his art.