In Painting with Philip Akkerman/ OLD MASTERS, NO SECRETS, Dutch artist Philip Akkerman shares the knowledge he has collected over forty years. The great secret of the old masters, as Akkerman shows in his studio, was that they divided the working process into a number of steps. This working process has been followed for years by the artist, who is equally practical and philosophical. It gives him the maximum control and freedom he needs to realize the essence of his painting in all the thousands of self-portraits he made: to paint all of humanity. And Art history. Because, as Akkerman quotes one of his great heroes, the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, the purpose of our existence is to make a self-portrait.
Painting with Philip Akkerman/ OLD MASTERS, NO SECRETS, started as a how-to YouTube video, to share his knowledge with the world, is a layered double self-portrait. A film about the artist working on his self-portraits, a masterclass, and in the end, thanks to the direction the artist partly takes over, is, again, again another self-portrait. On film.
A 95 minute slow movie by Dutch filmmaker Maarten de Kroon, inspired and presented by Philip Akkerman.
Music by @jameszoooo (‘Philip’)
All rights reserved by G.O.DOCS / Maarten de Kroon & Philip Akkerman
More information on https://philipakkerman.com and https://www.instagram.com/philip_akkerman
