Martin Linnartz, Beeldend Kunstenaar

Around AFCENT South Limburg, 1966

Martin Linnartz is an obstinate personality whose preference is drawing insects and other small animals, of which he had great knowledge and of which he never grows tired. As a boy already he collected beetles and now it appears that the artist profits by that hobby.

Sometimes in a few lines which his personal handwriting lets flow into vibrating life, Martin Linnartz reaches the same goal as the old Chinees aimed at: to say much with little, pure intense without understating the essence of the subject.

The drawing of Martin Linnartz are the results of working hard. What preceded the drawings, however, is not shown and so it seems as if all came spontaneously and easily. But make no mistake: many a drawing and sketch was flung into the waste paper basket before the artist was satisfied and approved of his drawing.

As a monumental artist Martin Linnartz has worked in buildings and houses he had made paintings and ceramic tableaux for. A striking example of his work as a monumental artist is formed by his activities in the ENCI-building at Maastricht. Here Linnartz has made some grissaille paintings, sketches and plans. In these paintings Linnartz started from the mechanics in this cement making-works. (-> The ENCI works)

Linnartz conceived these machines as life-size powerful beings leading lives of their own, and the remarkable thing about this conception is that these beings resemble insects, quite strange and mysterious and of an extraordinary expression.

At first people at the factory were none too enthousiastic but now they really appreciate what Linnartz did in their factory.

... Those drawings relate stories of life and death, though they are nowhere anecdotal and testify to that wonderful vision of martin Linnartz on life. His mosaics in De Galerij, which he sees as stones in facades of houses, have this mystery and enigma that is so typical of the artist's obstinacy.