The triptych by Harry Kranen is moved from the Overmaze prison to Maastricht University.

In 2014 Janine Schulze, consultant of the art collection at the State Buildings Agency, contacted the Arts and Heritage Commission of Maastricht University about a triptych painted by Harry Kranen, which was located in the police detention centre Overmaze.  Due to governmental cutbacks the prison was closed in 2014.  The triptych was offered to the university because of its relationship with the history of the Minderbroedersberg, which until 1972, besides courthouse, was also in use as a prison. The KEC was pleased with the gift and also took care of the needed restoration of this artwork. The representation of the Bonnefanten building in this artwork also has led to this transfer. In the building on the first floor the KEC found a perfect location for this artwork.

About of the triptych. The triptych was painted by Harry Kranen in 1974 commissioned by the State Buildings Agency for the new building of the detention centre Overmaze in Maastricht. In 1972 the prisoners at the detention house of the Minderbroedersberg were transferred to Overmaze, situated in the industrial area called Beatrixhaven in Maastricht. In the painting Harry Kranen aimed to capture the transfer of the prisoners in this triptych. The open triptych shows the view from the alley where you are looking at when you come from the direction of the Minderbroedersberg. When the triptych is closed (the back) you can see, painted in black and white and freely interpreted, the view that the detainees had from their new location in Overmaze. The front has the title "townscape", and the back has been given the title 'a view from the windows’.

The work is painted in neo-realistic style. The starting point of this style is a representation of reality, everyday life. However, putting an emphasis on shape, colour and choice of elements this reality gets an unexpected alienating form. Through this a psychological reality becomes visible as well. For example, the image of the garbage bags in the triptych is not a decoration, nor is it painted accidently. Two views of Kranen come together in these garbage bags. One vision is the idea that Kranen had about Limburg with its beautiful landscapes and its conservative conception of art. He experienced these conservative views on painting as out-dated, and he literally returns this idea wrapping it in a garbage bag, as a symbol of his discontent. The other vision relates to the occasion which has led to this painting; the prisoners were being transferred. He has captured this by visualizing the prisoners as garbage, as the negative remnants of society? Are they being tucked away? The latter is a free interpretation, which connects the two views.

Painting style. Although Kranen himself felt that he was not influenced by any style, there are painters where you associate his work with. Rousseau le Douanier for example, if you look at the way Kranen’s paints vegetation. Kranen’s use of shapes shows also similarity with the work Giorgio de Chirico with its alienating display of forms. Kranen reduces his object to plans and lines, but according his wife there always had to be a convex shape in his paintings. Objects and figures become part of a mysterious world of object. Harry Kranen

Restoration of the triptych in 2015. The work needed a thorough restoration, which was carried out in collaboration with the restoration studio Rijken.The painting has been cleaned because the surface looked grey and gloomy through the dust that got fixed on the surface of the canvas. Although the light has darkened the varnish, it was decided not to remove the varnish. This would be a too drastic measure and not immediately necessary. There were several minor damages (scratches, dents) found on the pictorial layer. These damages were not deep but the top layer of the paint was affected. As a result it did disturb the impression of the image, also due to the differences in gleam of varnish. The deep gaps are filled with filler, sanded and covered with a new layer of varnish. On the inside of the edge the painting is trimmed with gold leaf. The gold leaf has disappeared, in places where the wood was damaged, On the inside gaps on the bottom edge are revised with gold leaf (colour: pink noble double gold, 23.75 carats). Finally, all gaps and damages to the paint layer are retouched.  Due to these retouches the image is more in balance and enables you to experience the picture more as a whole.

Many thanks to Lieke Kranen-Gunther, widow of Harry Kranen and Teike Kranen, daughter of Harry Kranen.

Mieke Derickx

Tje tryptich is located at the Student Service Center at Bonnefantenstraat 2-4

‘townscape / a view from the windows', Oil painting on canvas (triptych)

hxb: 180 cm x 360 cm (with opened shutters)

Signed above the green gate, middle panel: Harry Kranen facit 1974