About the person
born in 1941 in Weert, Netherlands
lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jan Dibbets is a Dutch conceptual artist who is best known for his photographic work. Since the late 1960s, he has been exploring how perception and perspective determine our view of space and landscape. With photographic ‘perspective corrections’ and serial photographs, he questions the traditional central perspective and plays with the relationship between nature and abstraction. In addition to his photographic work, Dibbets has also realised public art projects, such as stained glass windows in Reims Cathedral. He is considered an important representative of European conceptual art, whose work re-explores the boundaries between painting, photography and spatial installation.
About the artwork
Dibbet's perspective interventions, such as in the work ‘Perspective Collection Sol Lewitt’, are created by placing geometric shapes in space. When viewed from the front, the shapes, such as squares or cubes, appear distorted, elongated and irregular.
Only by changing the perspective, by adopting a defined viewpoint, do these shapes suddenly appear correct. For example, an exact square appears that seems to float in space.
The resulting photograph captures this viewpoint precisely, making the paradox visible. The real, distorted mark on the wall appears in the photograph as a perfect geometric figure that breaks through any spatial logic. The real space remains untouched and preserved, but the photographic view forces it into a new order. It is a play on perception and viewing habits. We see something that ‘is right’ and yet know that it can only be so from a certain angle.