Pieter Laurens Mol | Zalmneusje (et cetera) | Salmon Nose (et cetera)

Viewing Room

Precursor of the museum as the institution we know today, the Wunderkammer – or cabinet de curiosité, was traditionally a room where a collection of remarkable objects belonging to natural history, geology, and religion were displayed. Pieter Laurens Mol (Breda, 1946) created his new solo exhibition at April in Paris, Zalmneusje (et cetera) / Salmon Nose (et cetera), as a Wunderkamer of works spanning his career.

In this cabinet of wonders, the artworks organically bind with one another and their surroundings, finding common ground and a fine sparkling new energy from their subtle connections. Supported by a playful and associative curatorial approach, various holistic themes spontaneously emerge, highlighting cardinal concepts which throughout the years have held a special meaning for the Dutch-born artist.

Close

Pieter Laurens Mol | Zalmneusje (et cetera) | installation view | April in Paris | 2022

Z.T. (Blauw Rattengat)
Untitled (Blue Rat Hole)
1971
hardboard strips eaten by rats mounted in dark tinted basswood box construction, casein paint on plywood panel
22.5 x 28.5 x 10.2 cm

Druiper (Picasso), 1971
Dripper (Picasso)
latex rubber, synthetic paint on wooden stand
57.5 x 11.5 x 23.5 cm

The exhibition contains a selection of works spanning five decades of practice with a special focus on the 60’s/early 70’s pieces. These early works, in particular, reveal the open-mindedness and ambition of a young Pieter Laurens Mol, who grew up in the provincial environment, to carve out his space in the international art scene.

As a fervent observer of the world, Pieter Laurens Mol has always been working with the ambiguously existential concepts in our folklore traditions, anthropology, and philosophy. The work varies from figurative to abstract, with an ageless narrative, ideas from the macro to the micro, from rural life all the way up to that of space travel. Mol manages to capture our reality with poetic intuition and conscious playfulness.
Thanks to an impressive variety of media, languages, concepts, and techniques, the exhibition chalks out a figure of the visionary artist, his immaculate vocation, and his everlasting curiosity.

Two-Sentence Perspective Study, 1975
75.5 x 70.8 cm
synthetic lacquer on cardboard, mounted in passe-partout, painted ramin wood frame

Close

Pieter Laurens Mol | Zalmneusje (et cetera) | installation view | April in Paris | 2022

The Philosopher Spinoza, 2022
citrus fruit mold in casein on Kraft paper with Blanc de Meudon prime
70 x 76.5 cm

In Memory of Hercules Seghers (Landscape Originated out of the Fruits of Disposal), 1987
white acrylic paint, pencil, rust powder and fruit mold on corrugated cardboard; gold leaf on oak frame
30.7 x 33.8 cm

Aurora (Broodlicht), Undated (seventies)
Aurora (Bread Licht)
charred bread, 7W light bulb with electrical fitting and cord, lacquer on oak bench
26.5 x 35 x 18 cm

The work titled “Aurora (Broodlicht)” is from the 70’s and consists of a real light shining from within a charcoaled loaf of bread set on a small stool serving as a table. The morning breaks as the bread, as the pitted fruit suggesting a rebirth or new beginning.

Close

Pieter Laurens Mol | Zalmneusje (et cetera) | installation view | April in Paris | 2022

Domkop in een Spiegel Kijkend, 1969
Dumbhead Looking in a Mirror
bust of various materials (biscuit tin, sponges, brick, brass clapper), heavy cotton stog on wooden stretcher
33 x 27 x 31 cm

Close

Pieter Laurens Mol | Zalmneusje (et cetera) | installation view | April in Paris | 2022

Z.T. (Simpel en Puur deze Sebastiaan Sculptuur), 1968
Untitled (Simple and Pure this Sebastian Sculpture)
16 two-inch nails driven into spruce
35.4 x 23 x 13.6 cm

Early Episode in Discovering Unknown Territory When Things Are Not Yet Named, 1988
flint (silex), bristles, scorched rubber and polyurethane glue on wood
25.5 x 13.5 x 9 cm

Pieter Laurens Mol | Untitled (On the Plumbing of Slumbers) | 2011 | 17.5 x 17 x 21 cm
Close

Pieter Laurens Mol | Untitled (The Final Painter’s Trophy) | installation view | April in Paris | 2022

Close

Pieter Laurens Mol | Zalmneusje (et cetera) | installation view | April in Paris | 2022

I left my Chisel in your Brain, 1996
pencil and rust wash on paper, mounted in passe-partout, oak frame
50.5 x 59.7 cm

De Wijze Waarop Schilderijen Branden, 1968
The Way Paintings Burn
oil on canvas on plywood panel, wooden
frame covered with cigarette filter paper
27.5 x 38.3 cm

In the work Zonder Titel (Gesprokkelde Nachten) / Untitled (Gleaned Nights), from 1985, which is made up of a group of different sized black rods, bundled together in a light-fast bag (used by photographers to protect their film in the field), a poetic image emerges. The title, which with a play on words, suggests a bunch of rays of darkness gleaned as wheat after the harvest looks like beams of dark sprouting from their container.

Zonder Titel (Gesprokkelde Nachten), 1985
Untitled (Gleaned Nights)
light-tight black cotton bag, black acrylic lacquer on round wooden rods in different diameter and length, bundled, steel suspension bracket.
90 x 20 x 16 cm

Je ne veux pas parler de ma vie sentimentale, 2012
I Don’t Want to Talk About My Feelings
pencil, watercolour and typewritten text on paper
21 x 29.5 cm

Baken, 1975
Beacon
hardened crust of synthetic paint and
acrylic paint on linen on wooden
stretchers
32.2 x 40.2 x 3.5 cm

Close

Pieter Laurens Mol | Zalmneusje (et cetera) | installation view | April in Paris | 2022

Comet Collection, 1994
watercolor and dispersion paint on paper
34.5 x 44.5 cm

Zonder Titel (10 Gaten), 1975
Untitled (10 Holes)
oil paint on plywood panels with sawed out
holes, tin frames
(10x) 24 x 193.5 cm
Overall dimensions: 54.5 x 143 cm

Close

Pieter Laurens Mol | Zonder Titel (10 Gaten) | installation view | April in Paris | 2022

Om een Vuurtje Bedelende Steen, 1968
Stone Begging for a Light
Belgian sandstone and cigar
49 cm (height)

Close

Pieter Laurens Mol | Zalmneusje (et cetera) | installation view | April in Paris | 2022

A friendly cloud of bright small colored pencil drawings framed in tiny white frames hangs next to a list of titles jutting out of the wall on a A4 sized white sheet of paper typed up with a typewriter. Zonder Titel (Zalmneusje) / Untitled (Salmon Nose) from 1974, which is also the title work of the exhibition, blurs the line between the human and non-human, dictating the human condition onto objects and animals, using language as a crowbar. Literally translated as “the nose of the salmon”, this Dutch expression stands for “the best of the best” and is a prime example of the importance that titles hold in Mol’s practice. By disrupting the existing parameters of our reality, Pieter Laurens Mol transforms the ordinary in extra-ordinary.

Pieter Laurens Mol | Zalmneusje (et cetera) | installation view | April in Paris | 2022

Varkensstal nabij Bavel, 1970
Pig Sty in the Vicinity of Bavel
oil on paper, pasted on furniture board panel, lacquer on steel swing hook
40 x 49.5 x 7 cm

Rekonstruktie, 1970 – 1990
Reconstruction
spruce box with 4 lacquered steel swing hooks, straw and steel grid
56 x 53 x 38 cm

Pieter Laurens Mol | Scultura Italiana | 1973 | original 2 ½ minute event recorded on Super 8 Movie Film

Kleine Krentenkosmos, 1969
Small Currants Cosmos
currants, nylon fishing thread, beechwood pens, 
varnish on wood box
22.5 x 42 x 16.5 cm

Close

Pieter Laurens Mol | Kleine Krentenkosmos | installation view | April in Paris | 2022

Edde Gij Nog Un Bietje Geel Vor Mijn?, 1973 ca
Can I Have a Bit of Yellow From You?
pencil, oil paint and typewriter text on paper, 
yellow-pigmented varnish on oak frame
44.2 x 51.5 cm

Memoria Obscurata, 2010
fly agaric stain, pencil, stamped text and white 
acrylic primer on pine wood; steel frame
31.8 x 36.8 cm