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0n 1958 Jan Schoonhoven became a member of 'De Nederlandse Informele Groep' that was founded by Henk Peters. The other members of the group were Armando, Kees van Bohemen and Jan Hendrikse. It was around this period that he created his first three-dimensional works. Schoonhoven was clearly looking for a new form of expression. He states about his search: 'I started out as a painter/drawer and, through the need for more "thingness", arrived at the relief, having gone in a certain sense, from being a painter to a sculptor. (…) Because I see the informal (at least for now) as being necessary not only for the formless, as it were, but also for the formative (thus two conflicting tendencies), I believe that the solution - at least for me - can be provided by the introduction of a third dimension: the making of reliefs.' (sited in: Janneke Wesseling, Jan Schoonhoven, The Hague, p. 38.) The early reliefs still show a painterly character. He constructed a cardboard foundation, which he filled up with paper-maché and painted in dark monochromatic colours. In 1957 Schoonhoven switched to the use o0 discovered that he could work much more quickly by pasting the cardboard with pieces of newspaper and cover them with enamel paint. Th0 result of this way of working pleased him a great deal, not only due to its efficiency, but also because the effect was less painterly. Since then he made his reliefs as follows: on a piece of chipboard, he 0akes a grid pattern from corrugated board, 'the skeleton' of the relief, to which he applies strips of newspaper that have been soaked i0 wall paper paste. When this has dried, he then paints it entirely. In 1960 the Dutch 'Nul groep' was formed, by the same members as the earlier mentioned Informele Groep, apart from Kees van Bohemen. 'Nul' was the Dutch answer on the European trend among young artists to create an impersonal, objective art. The term New Tendencies taken from 'Nove Tendencye' (the title of two international exhibitions held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia in 1961 and 1963) can serve as a general name for these movements, which were reactions to expressionism. Key figures were Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein and Piero Manzoni. The common interest for the New Tendencies is renouncing the idea of the painting as a depiction of three-dimension reality on the flat surface, as an illusory representation of a world into itself. All four 'Nul'-artists had there own solution for creating this new objective art form. While for Peeters, Armando and Hendrikse the involvement of the artist was mainly expressed by the choice of material he used, for Schoonhoven it was the order and unity in the composition, which made his works achieve the intended lack of emotion. Although the works are always inspired by a pattern he saw in the real world, Schoonhoven registered without commenting on reality. For his work would mean two things: he would remove colour from his works, until there was only white left, and his work would create a serial character. Serial is to say: the repetition of identical elements. All of the elements of the image are the same and are equivalent to each other, so that nowhere in the image one can speak of accents of hierarchy. Schoonhoven did not only give the works a serial character, he also produced them in series. For these series he started to use a simple but effective numbering system: R stands for relief, the first number is the year that it was made and the second number indicates the sequence within that year. By numbering the works they got an even more impersonal character, that Schoonhoven was aiming for. Nevertheless as the title 'Sterren-gerekt-3' of lot 314 shows he was not completely consequent in this. The three present lots all date from the late 1960's and early 1970'. By this time the artist had come to his complete form language. These works all in there own way show the tension between the aimed impersonality and the hand of the artist. It is this contradiction that gives the works their strength. In and interview with K. Schippers in 1968 he stated: It continues to be a challenge for me to seek out the greatest degree of impersonality, but even here there is still a personal element (...…)The handwork has to be visible in it' (Ibid, p. 66).

Jan Schoonhoven (1914-1994)

"Sterren-gerekt-3"

Details

Jan Schoonhoven (1914-1994)
"Sterren-gerekt-3"
signed, dated and inscribed with title 'J.J. Schoonhoven 1968' (on the reverse)
a white painted cardboard relief
63 x 43 cm.

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