On September 13th, a German newspaper called "Grafschaftlicher Nachrichten
(Tageszeitung für den Landkreis Grafschaft Bentheim)" carried this nice article
by reporter / photographer Judith Tolomello about the opening of my exhibition
at Friedag Augenoptik in Nordhorn. A rough translation goes as follows:
"Enchantresses" with visual aids
Dutch artist Rob van Dijk portrays women with glasses
"In my school days I wanted to become an optician". Rob van Dijk remembers
it well. "But after the final examination there was this father - son talk". It ended
with the father's decision that the son had to go to university instead. The dream
of being an optician was far behind the horizon. Over four decades later, the
schoolboy of the day is standing in the town centre of Nordhorn, indulging his
childhood dream in his own individual, special way.
During all those years, Rob van Dijk collected ladies glasses. "One each week -
there are some 2000 pieces now", the Dutchman tells. A few years back his
hobby was broadened by adding portrait photography. But Van Dijk does not
settle for classic motives. Instead, he tries to show the world his view on society:
the beauty of women in glasses.
He now has a weblog on the internet, in which he publishes his portraits. He is
not just engaged in his art but also in the Third World: "I don't collect just for
myself. I also send glasses from my collection to those people".
The "glasses artist" is steadily gaining recognition for his work. The owner of
Friedag Opticians, whose premises are used by Rob van Dijk this day, is
impressed. "I have never experienced someone trying to bring forward very
strong glasses in such a positive way", Manfred Friedag tells us. Michael
Kolley who runs the Friedag shop, was a sceptic at first, but the Dutchman
convinced him fast with his cordial ways. Van Dijk succeeds in making other
people enthousiastic about his work, mainly by his own enthousiasm.
The artist is accompanied by four models for the small photo shoot in Nordhorn.
He portrays them for his weblog. One of the four ladies is his life partner Nel.
His photo shoots of ladies in prescription glasses started with her, a couple of
years ago. "She needs to wear quite strong glasses, Rx -11", he explains. But
in his eyes, Nel looks gorgeous, especially in glasses. The self confident models
put a spell on the spectators and it does not take them long to show that heavy
glasses are fashion accesories indeed.
For Rob van Dijk, the glasses are even more than that. When asked about his
motives to live his hobby, the sympathetic Dutchman tells us about his late
grandmother. "In my eyes, she was a magician". She was able to push the
world away from her by putting on her glasses for long distance, and she
managed pulling the world towards her by putting up her reading glasses.
That's what Rob thought when he was a small child. But then he looked
around him in the streets and he soon realized that the world was full of
female magicians. His fascination with women in glasses remains till this day.
"The models performing in a catwalk on the red carpet in front of the
camera of the artist who portrays the ladies for his weblog"
"The four models of artist Rob van Dijk are wearing only a tiny fraction
of his giant collection of 2000 glasses from many different decades"
