Peter Gentenaar is an extraordinary Dutch printmaker, whose art was born out of the limitations of what one can create with store-bought paper. His fearless imagination and artistry led him to build his own paper factory and create the paper himself with a customized beater machine. With the help of the Royal Dutch Paper Factory, who taught him the significance of beaters, he realized that the process of pulling water from the pulp shrinks it by as much as 40%. It was through this process of pulp drying and shrinking that he came up with his stunning creations; ethereal paper sculptures made of molder paper, dye and bamboo.
Resembling floating autumn leaves twisting in the wind, more than 100 of his sculptures were exhibited in the Festival of Classical Music in St. Riquer, Nothern France. The gothic arches of the famous French abbey posed as the perfect backdrop for Gantenaar’s ethereal creations to hover in between. Organic in shape and romantic in character, these paper sculptures can’t help but make people feel as if they are part of a fairytale.
