The Glasses of Henk Hofstede

Why Beauty and Elegance Matter – A Course by Professor Henk Hofstede

The 28th shape are the glasses of Henk Hofstede.

Going through my small archive of Nits videos which my husband and I recorded during various concerts in Belgium and The Netherlands, I stumbled upon this recording of the angst song “Pockets of Rain”. In fact it must have been one of the very first live performances in a concert hall of this song – if not the very first one. I recorded it in Breda on the 23rd of September 2017, the first autumn concert of the angst tour. And what a performance it turned out to be! I was immediately in love with the song.

I loved Henk’s sleek nonchalance and the elegant poise he brings to his rendition of the song. Although this was one of the first performances of “Pockets of Rain” in front of a concert audience, he looks so confident as if he played the song a million times before. He is wearing glasses – I did not often see him wearing glasses during concerts – and a suit of course; I think he looked like a posh student … and really sexy, if I may say so. He could be a philosophy professor or so … maybe a professor in aesthetics and the many disciplines involved in the art of beauty and its perception. The British philosopher Roger Scruton thought that we should take the notion of beauty more seriously. And I couldn’t agree more.

Henk Hofstede’s lectures would focus on his vision of beauty and how he translates it into music and poetry. Why does he think and feel that beauty is so important? Why is art important to him, to Nits? How does music relate to the other arts? I for one would like to hear him talk about these subjects. I have a feeling that his ideas about art are intimately connected to his vision on music. Of course many musicians are interested in the arts, but not many succeed in bringing the forms, colours and shapes of the artistic object into their music as Nits have done. And few have brought so many artists into the spotlight in their songs. In fact it is my opinion that Nits broke the mould of pop music in order to fit in their aesthetic vision of life.

Over the past hundred years or so the notion of beauty became less and less important, it became almost completely redundant in the postmodern vision of art, but here with Nits I find a definite example of the return of this most sublime and pure idea of beauty and I thank Nits for restoring its value so passionately in their work. It certainly is a characteristic that sets Nits apart once more in the world of pop music, this passion for the purity and beauty of creative forms, for a skilled and knowing craftsmanship, for the patience of the artistic way of being. In many of their songs you can easily see the workings of a contemplative mind that looks at the world with clear eyes or you feel the presence of a sincere joy that permeates everything they do. This joy, this contemplation along with their dedication to the musical expression of their world turned their work into a homely environment. Roger Scruton said that beauty leads us home and expands our joy. Indeed in this home of beauty that Nits created, there seems to be no place for alienation and ugliness. When we aspire to create something beautiful, the world will become more humane and joyful, a postulate that Nits have proven time and time again. The way they created the album Tree House Fire as a thing of beauty out of the tragedy of the fire shows once more the humanity of their art. And how music can comfort us and make us feel at home again through the beauty that was created.

Two things that have fascinated me right from the start when I was listening to my first Nits cd’s were the importance of childhood and innocence in the lyrics and feel of the work, and the absence of almost any reference to sexuality. I suppose that those two aspects go hand in hand. It is as if Nits profess the platonic idea of beauty in their work where beauty lies beyond sexual desire: in simple terms the Venus of Botticelli is no object of lust, but more of a distanced contemplation. The women and girls, men and boys of Nits are portrayed in a combination of this childlike innocence on the one hand and this pure way of painting characters that goes beyond the attraction of sexual desire on the other. The strawberry girl in her kitchen looks more like a painting of Vermeer … or sitting at the river banks she could be a figure painted by Manet … This way of experiencing beauty brings with it serenity and a deeper sort of happiness.

And of course … need I say it again … any everyday thing can become a thing of beauty in the world of Nits. Those Nits glasses transform the world into a home of joy and beauty.

Joke Roelandt, April 2025