Clemens Briels: ‘I am a storyteller’

- Clemens Briels (1946) by Karina Meerman -

Clemens Briels (1946, Son) is almost as colourful as his work. His hair, his spectacles, his clothing, the eye never need become bored. “What are we going to talk about? Dreams? That’s fine.”

The relationship between Leoloux and Clemens Briels goes back to 1995, when Briels was at the start of his career as an artist. He left the advertising business and exchanged his comfortable position as Art Director for an uncertain existence as an artist. Many people dream of having a different life, but Clemens Briels actually made that step. From the start he said that he would become a world-famous artist and he was right. His work hangs and stands in galleries all over the world and everything he touches appears to work. His art is wanted by companies too. They employ him for special company gifts and his work can be found on a whole variety of objects, from footballs to cars. Briels takes on almost any challenge.

But Leolux was one of the first. “They had a view to involve me from the start,” says Briels. “They felt then that I could do more than just paint.” He was given the assignment to design furniture and Briels got to work. “Due to my lack of expertise, the chairs were very original,” he says in all seriousness. It resulted in the Antipode dining-room chairs, named after Briels’ philosophy on painting. Antipodism is the art of the antipode, looking at the world from an unusual point of view. A self-appointed philosophy that has brought him international success. The Clemens Briels Art Centre in Aalsmeer is the best place to become further immersed in the man and his work: nine hundred square metres of sculptures and paintings in Briels’ familiar splash of colours and playful forms. A joy certainly to the eye, but possibly somewhat too much for the poor senses to take in. Visitors sink gratefully into the various Leolux seats in order to take in at their own pace the explosion of impressions.

The forms and colours fit incredibly well together. Why are there so many pieces of Leolux furniture in Aalsmeer? “Much of what they make I find beautiful and I like to be associated with Leolux. I consider it to be an extremely sound company. They supply the highest quality in any colour that a person could want. All colours: that fits well with me. The colour is the vehicle and the story is what it’s all about. I am a storyteller and the means I use is colour.” He paints what he sees, whatever comes to him, who he meets. He paints, as it were, a chronicle of today. That’s also why his work is admired by so many people, he thinks. “I touch something in people. I do what I like and evidently that is just right.” He prefers not to have deep searching discussions about his work. “If you pull a poem apart, it becomes mere words and the soul is lost.” For that same reason he considers it unwise to analyse a painting down to the last brushstroke. Yet he provides surprisingly deep insight into his world of thoughts, when he is asked to talk about his painted dream.

The painting has the title ‘Life is just a speck of sand, which blows away with time II ’. It is an indication of the elusiveness of the dream. It also appears as if the hands on the painting are trying to catch that which is just out of reach. “You mustn’t go in search of dreams,” says Briels. “You must dream them and let them go. If you go in search of them, they may not work out and you no longer have any dreams.” This may sound somewhat strange from the man who has made things happen that for others remain a fantasy. “It’s true that I have made my dreams come true, but that means that I must continue to search for new ones. Now I take care that there are always new challenges. I am already working on the next one.” He points to a leather woman’s face with a handle that is lying on the table. A handbag that looks as if it has fallen out of a painting. Fashion accessories? “Hand-made lady’s bag. I say it is going to be a hit worldwide and I dream that I’m right.” Clemens Briels dreams that he will always have something to dream about.

http://www.clemensbriels.nl/

Clemens Briels’ work is for sale in the Leolux-Design-Centers and visitors center Via Creandi.