Ruud de Wild knows language like no other. As a radio DJ he would talk for hours each day, as a painter he composes his paintings around music lyrics.
Traditionally, words are seen as signifier; they only signify a meaning. Ruud de Wild approaches words in a different way. In our information era, words have become the new commodity. For de Wild, words are objects.
Different from most artists who work with text, de Wild examines the word as speaker and as painter. What voice, timbre and volume are to the spoken word, typography and graphic design are to the written word. De Wild’s paintings examine the ‘soundless’ word, the engraved word. Grown up in a family of graphic designers, de Wild’s paintings are research into colour, composition and form and their relation to text, especially lyrics. Above all else, graphic design is a technique of structure and control. De Wild combines this with a pronounced impulsive style of painting.
Ruud de Wilds paintings are a research into the effect of language and its relation to form and image. His works are an amalgam of text, colour, structure, typography and motives, but always filled with meaning and tension.
