Harry van Kruiningen is one of those dutch artist who’s importance grows by the year. He was a multi disciplined artist. Painting, etching, sculpting….he did everything. Personally i think his etchings and illustrations belong (arguably) to the very best that were made during the second half of last century in the Netherlands.
They all have something mystical and when you see where his inspirations was coming from ( African masks) one can see the mystic and recognise the mysticism in his works.
One of my personal favourite painters is Jan Roëde. Not very well known outside the Netherlands, but in the Netherlands, he has build a name for himself with frequent gallery and museum exhibitions. One thing I want to share with the readers of this blog is the frequent return of some elements in his paintings. Children, parents and some animals are to be found on his colourful paintings, but the one I like personally most is this “bird he puts in many cases next to his signature.
It is a typical Roëde element which makes his paintings immediately recognized. A fun fact, but also a part of the paintings which has the function of an extra signature, because the Roëde bird is one of a kind and no other bird in the world has this shape and can be found in so many colours.
There are some nice Roëde publications available at www.ftn-books.com
At one time , many years ago, i was living in Wassenaar. Me and my ex wife had a small apartment in a newly build apartment building and just around the corner there was a “classic” dutch house. I learned that Paul Citroen , the dutch Bauhaus artist lived there. I know the drawings by Citroen, because i had seen them at Pulchri Studio, but what i learned many years later was that he was influenced by Bauhaus and was one of the great collage artists. I
t was an aspect of his work that i had never known before but was very appealing to me. It was the extra layer i was looking for in his art. Where his drawinsg and photographs were very personal and recognizable, his collages were inspired by his fellow artists at the Bauhaus. Since i i always remember Paul Citroen when i pass his old house and remember the great art he stands for.
I recently added an intriguing book from 1957 in which drawings and photographs by and on Paul Citroen are depicted.
This is one of those artist who is hardly known outside the Den Haag region. He knew Nanninga, was a friend of Jan Snoeck and even had a duo exhibition with him at the Museum Jan van der Togt a few years ago.
Personally i am not too familiar with the works by Lens, but when you look at them, you can see some influences of Cobra painting and ….Kees van Bohemen who he must have known from the cafes in Den Haag where the artist gathered ( de Posthoorn is very well known). Being a member of Pulchri artist studio he regularly had his exhibitions , but it took until 2005 before he had his first major retrospective exhibition at the Jan van der Togt museum . This catalogue is now available at www.ftn-books.com
Yesterday i mentioned the POSTHOORNGROEP and one of its members was Kees van Bohemen.
I remember that at one time, me and my parents visited a restaurant next door to the Haagse Kunstkring on the Denneweg in Den Haag and my mother told me that at the bar was a famous The Hague artist….Kees van Bohemen. I only knew his name from the paintings i had seen at the Gemeentemuseum, but possibly this was the first time i saw a true artist/painter in the “wild”. I remember he was drinking a beer and never left the bar during our meal. Many years later we met again in the Gemeentemuseum and at that occasion van Bohemen was offering his publications and some prints to be sold at the museumstore of the Gemeentemuseum. We took some of them in consignation and since i have been following his career. Making exhibitions at Pulchri, Kunstkring and Delta gallery it always struck me that his style was typical sixties and highly recognizable. Nowadays you encounter his works at the less prestigious auctions ( Venduehuis and AAG) but this does not mean they are not to be admired, they may not be in a price bracket of the Warhol’s and Basquiat’s, but that is not what art is about. The art of van Bohemen is admirable and deserves to be collected and shown in museums and fortunately many do admire his works. Here are the publications available at www.ftn-books.com
