Paul van der Eerden
At first sight the drawings of Paul van der Eerden (1954) are raw and uncomfortable. Often the image is completely flat and the representation has been squeezed into the framework of the sheet of paper. Grotesquely stylized faces almost burst from the surface, sometimes the representation has been deliberately cut off, so that it seems to run on beyond the surface of the drawing.
For instance, on the edge of a tiled floor you see the little legs and trunks of people and animals, the rest of their bodies is beyond the surface. In other drawings faces or bodies are repeated or piled up so that they turn into a pattern. Nearly always Paul van der Eerden brings up serious subjects, such as loneliness, violence and desertion. Because of the grotesque and often humorous style a relativizing distance is created, making it possible to face such fears and obsessions.