Modern Art is delighted to announce an exhibition of paintings by René Daniëls, his third with the gallery. The seven paintings, most of which have never been exhibited, span the formative period of 1980 to 1984, prior to and prefiguring the development of his signature 'bowtie' motif. Early works from this period are mainly figurative, notably loose in brushwork, and made up of several layers often revealing traces of underpaintings. Superimposed figures appear as dreamlike apparitions, floating over the canvas and dissolving into inanimate objects. Together this body of work shows how Daniëls used mysticism, ceremonial rituals, as well as woodland and jungle environments as iconography to probe the lexicons of art history and mechanisms of the art market.