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Igor Kruter is working mostly with medium photography. The human appearance is shown with focus on instinct as well as the dream side, the inner self of man. To emphasize this image of man one aspect is strongly coming forward in all of Kruters creations and that is the classic image, like in older paintings. He studied the use of light in classical paintings deeply. No wonder that the old masters (like Velasquez, Rembrandt, Goya, Vermeer, Rubens …) are a strong source of inspiration. That utters in Kruter´s work in structure, in composition, as well as in the use of light. Kruter places his models in a close to sculptural way showing their (personal, but also universal) emotions. Extremes are often used. Contrast that man often meets in life, sometimes interweaved with each other, sometimes forcing you to take decisions. They can reveal the positive, but also can place us in difficult situations. Contrasts like light and dark, love and hate, survival and death are the main returning themes in Kruter´s work. He encourages his models to show their personal feelings and associations with these themes. In the meanwhile interesting and meticulous images are appearing, registered by the artist. Because of the continuous changing emotions and conceptions, because of the continuous changing state and position of the body Kruter shows us the repressed, the struggle, or in other words: the suffering and the fight of a human being. The idea of suffering and fighting is not bound to life itself: Man wants to be remembered after death. Man is afraid of being forgotten and wants to sustain something of oneself after life. In some religions it is made easier; believing in God, behaving well according to the rules of the religion, is offering you an everlasting life in paradise. Suffering is needed, but eternal life is achieved. If you think differently another way has to be found to reach eternity. To live as long and comfortable as possible, to build an empire, man has the tendency to spoil/fight against nature, the source of one selves own life. If you see what one is doing to achieve a certain state of eternity or to be remembered after death, is actually an aggressive but also fascinating behavior. Man is detached from and in struggle with nature, but at the same time, according to Kruter, the most beautiful creature there is. Also in Kruter´s impressive work “The Ark” the thought of suffering is coming back. It is an object of 3 x 3metres, consisting of 100 portraits of people with eyes closed. For this project Igor Kruter searched for 100 persons not in an optimal state and/or in a stressed mind. Struggle is a daily matter, a daily struggle for all kinds of things, causing a lot of stress. They feel insecure due to this stress, which is in that sense another form of suffering. “The Ark” is a kind of photo therapy. In the process of creating this object Kruter wants to relieve the minds of his models, offer them time to come to themselves, to let them return to a certain state of rest. These people are offered a moment of coming into a balanced state, showing of in Kruter´s work. When seeing the work of the 100 portraits as a body, you are looking at a balanced object. One person is equal to the other, no one is attracting attention more than the other: the work is in balance and it is a whole. The work radiates rest. Rest and balance has to return in each and every person in this work. Every person in “The Ark” has closed eyes, everyone is focused on his inner self, has his own perception of the environment. At that moment of personal relaxation and returning rest, every person is creating an ideal world for oneself, a moment of being in paradise, a moment in eternity. That even before death of the individual. The portraits create an image of intense sleep, close to death. The rest brought by death is for a moment experienced.
Text by Suzanne Ophof 2007