MUSEUMDEWIN exists only on-line.

MUSEUMDEWIN collects and exhibits work of a certain willi dewin.
willi dewin is an 'artists name' of mine, always written in lower case. Such I called the painter in me, a not untalented but stubborn guy who dit only what he liked and who would refuse anything that smelled like customers orders. No wonder he couldn't survive! He had a wrong idea about fine arts, hopeless idealistical. In real life I am Winfried Kamps, born in '56 in Düsseldorf, Germany, masters degree in fine arts, Belgian by now. Amongst other professions I used to work as internet developer and web designer. In other words: I made the pictures and I made MUSEUMDEWIN. MUSEUMDEWIN helps me to keep track of my works by means of digital copies. It's not wrong to state that the work on web pages replaced painting. willi dewin got lost.

Most of his original exhibits in MUSEUMDEWIN were small water colors but I added some larger paintings as well. Many are made in Antwerp since I have lived for almost 20 years in that town. Therefore Antwerp is frequently depicted. Other places that occure prominently are Amsterdam and Frankfurt / Main, earlier stations. The paintings are made in the period of late 80th till early years 2000.

In 2003 I extended MUSEUMDEWIN with a delftware tiles section. Here willi dewins manner of painting occures on ceramic wall tiles in Delft Blue. The tiles were intended to be incorporated around my swimming pool and in the kitchen of my cottage and in other places of my compound. Unfortunatedly I never owned any real estate and it's silly to attach tiles permanently into rented places. Once you leave you loose them or you have to remove them on your own costs. So I tried to sell the tiles but I learned that no reasonable price is to be gained, tiles have a low-cost profile. Even tiles from the 17th century can be bought for a couple of bucks, it's mass production of course, but they are hand painted non the less. Therefor here in capitals: NOT FOR SALE! That applies for all items of MUSEUMDEWIN. Most originals don't exist any more anyway.

willi dewin produced, since I knew him, unsolicited pictures. Why, if he didn't show them? For everyone who didn't know: some people make pictures for other purposes then showing them to other people. willi dewin made pictures for his own. His reward was his own final acception he realized with them and acception is beauty.

willi's basic equipment used to be some snippets of (aquarel-)paper in his pockets and a pencil. He drew fast. Then, at home, he applied color in microscopic portions until he declared a piece for finished. Then he attached it to the wall with pin nails. There the pictures lined up with others to rows and columns and established vertical and horizontal relationships, much like in a crossword puzzle. Once in a while he set up an workshop in bigger stile with the smell of oil and thinner and everything. Big size still lifes were the result of this.

Generally I was pleased with what he came up with. Especially his water colors were bright and had a lively touch. I tried to collect the originals in shoe boxes, maps and folders, many however got lost, particularly on journeys or while changing homes. Many were destroyed by water. Or I sent originals as greetings or presents to relatives and friends, where they vanished. If you happen to have some of his work still around, I would be pleased if you submit it to MUSEUMDEWIN by email!

Many of the originals had more gradation than the Scans, particularly in the bright parts like skies. On the other hand many scans display on screen much more poster-like than the originals, especially when viewed big, vice versa the bigger paintings are compacted to screen size. As widely is known, with Photoshop everything is possible, but I tried not to make Photoshop-art from his works but to render the images pretty much as they were intended.

All by all I observed a strange persistence of style with willi dewin, it hardly ever changed. Whether on paper, on wood, on canvas or on ceramic tiles, for me his works always were clearly recognizable willi dewins. He did not copy anybody even when he copied.

So much about MUSEUMDEWIN.

Winfried Kamps (willi dewin)

email: museumdewin@winfried.be | < Clicking on the animated logo takes you to the entrance.

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