Pressletter

I Will Win 7 – The Crisis
A painting of 33 x 20 feetOn November 6st, 2011, the renowned Dutch artist Erik Van Loon will unveil his 7th I Will Win painting ‘I Will Win 7 – The Crisis” along the course of the NYC Marathon to approximately 40,000 runners and 260 million TV viewers in 125 countries.Location: (NEW LOCATION)
128 willis av new york Bronx side of the Willis Av.
Bridge November 6st 2011, New York

The artist:
Erik Van Loon
US +1 865 238 5666 (+1865 2 E V LOON)
EU +3 16 3 826 5666 (+31 6 E VAN LOON)
info@erikvanloon.com www.erikvanloon.com/iww

THE CRISIS:
Inspired by the political/financial problems I painted The Crisis. The Crisis is about a.o. greed, Wall Street, War, politicians, bankers and the media and two impressive paintings about the Great Depression: – American Gothic (1930) from Grant Wood (USA) and – Pillars of Society (1926) from George Grosz (Germany) In The Crisis I painted (from right to left): – the politicians reading right (republican) newspapers supporting – the bankers, companies, corporations who are in charge and they     give orders to – the soldiers who threatens – the people (farmers, disabled, children, etc) who want their money back

FROM MAN TO MANKIND
The I Will  Win series will end when his painting is broadcast for six to seven seconds into the homes of 260 million people in 120 countries. That’s why he has made those amazing artworks:

I Will Win (2005) : Erik Van Loon portrayed himself traditionally using the colors and elements of the American flag and the Dutch Royal House of Orange. On his chest he patined his official runners number. With I Will Win (1) he celebrates all those people who strive day in day out to to achieve their personal goals in study, sport, work and relationships.
I Will Win 2 – The News (2006) : Erik Van Loon portrayed himself as the frontpage of the New York Times with which he demonstrated the use of letters and words in imagery to challenge and stimulate the viewer’s experience of art like Johns, Nauman and Rauschenberg did. It is also a autobiographical self-portrait in which he painted himself in past, present and future.
I Will Win 3 – The Statue (2007) : Erik Van Loon portrayed himself as the Statue of Liberty by painting himself as the Greek soldier Pheidippides, who was sent from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.
I Will Win 4 – The Runner (2008): Erik Van Loon portrayed himself running naked in Central Park. This selfportrait is inspired by Edvard Muybridge one of the founders of the Motion Picture Film, and the exhibition The Bodies (New York, Tokyo, Moskou, Amsterdam, Paris, Londen).
MANKIND
I Will Win 5 – The History (2009): Erik Van Loon made a collage of the 400 year friendship between the Netherlands and New York. In this collage you will find a small self-portrait of him as Hans Brinker (who saved the Netherlands with his finger in a dike). With The History he ended his selfportrait series.  I also gave 400 red tulips away to the runners of the New York City Marathon to celebrate our 400 years of friendship.
I Will Win 6 – The Creation (2010): Inspired by the problems caused by the oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico I made a painting about water and air pollution. In The Creation I also painted 8 American presidents (both republicans and democrats) supporting God (with gasmasks because of air pollution). In the painting God creates the women and she extinguished the fire in the Gulf of Mexico. The water from the tap though causes a Tsunami. With that I predicted by coincidence also the Tsunami in Japan of 2011 and the Nuclear problems caused by it.For the first time the painting was hang along a building at the Bronx side of the Willis Av Bridge. Mile 20.

GOOGLE EARTH
In 2005 I came up with the ieda to make an artwork that you could see from satellite. From NASA though I learned that a stamp-sized photo would cost $5,000!  A lot of money for a really little photo. That’s why I decided to show the I Will Win series along the course of the New York City Marathon.

NEW YORK CITY MARATHON
The New York City Marathon, the biggest one day sports and media events in the world inspired me to unveil the I Will Win series in New York. The I Will Win series was born with each year another artwork and theme untill my painting would be broadcast worldwide for 6 to 7 seconds into the homes of 260 million people in 120 countries all over the world.

WHY
With the I Will Win serie I want to reach the public beyond the art world (Beyond Art) with the use of mass media to incite discovery, stimulate reflection, create beauty and generate self-knowledge in order to move them literally and metaphorically eventually increasing understanding, exchange and cooperation between people companies and governments worldwide to eventually create peace in my lifetime.

At Work in Progress you can find studio photo’s of the making of The Crisis in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Seventh time lucky?

Erik Van Loon
The Netherlands