Untitled #7

Yoke Bakker was born in Amsterdam. It was in that city that she was first introduced to painting through her contact with the Dutch painter Max Bueno de Mesquita. At the age of twenty-one, she left the Netherlands for France, where she settled and continued her artistic training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Brest. She has exhibited in Paris, Amsterdam, London, New York, and Johannesburg.

Her work is abstract. The goal she pursues is simple to state and complex to achieve: to combine and harmonise shapes and colours. A delicate balancing act in which every gesture calls for restraint. This objective grants her great freedom of execution and opens onto an infinite range of combinations. Naturally, she imposes her own rules upon that freedom. Thus, for some time now, she has reduced her palette to the bare minimum — a choice which, in her view, reflects a sense of serenity. She hopes that her canvases convey a blend of intimacy and mystery. The result, however, may be something quite different. It is well known that the content of a painting changes depending on the person observing it. And that is precisely what she invites the viewer to do: to take pleasure in shaping their own interpretation.