THE PROPERTY OF THE LATE KEES GROENENDIJK, AMSTERDAM
(lot 518-612; 86 lots in prints session (morning))
"Collectors are useful. They work like magnets for the artist, or rather, as window displays." (Kees Groenendijk in exhibition catalogue Lucebert, Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1964)
Kees Groenendijk (1915-1996) will always be remembered as the most passionate Lucebert collector of his time. Groenendijk's love for Lucebert was, however, by no means exclusive and throughout his life time he became both personal friend or acquaintance of many Contemporary artists. For example, Karel Appel, Constant, Gustave Asselbergs, Jaap Wagemaker, Carel Visser and Jaap Mooy.
Born in Amsterdam, Groenendijk returned to the city after his militairy service in the Dutch East Indies in the early 1950's to begin a career as a dentist. As a result of his friendships with Willem Sandberg, Hans Jaffé and Ad Petersen, the former director, deputy director and head of the print department at the Stedelijk Museum, he developed a taste for Contemporary Dutch Art. Many of these young artists: Karel Appel, Ed van der Elsken, Johan van der Keuken, Gerrit Kouwenaar and Eli Content, actually became his patients.
Groenendijk was enormously attracted by the Cobra group's nonconformist attitude towards art. Above all he was profoundly impressed by the work of Lucebert, both as an artist and a poet, and was one of the main forces to promote the artist. Groenendijk's undiluted enthusiasm for sharing his paintings with others and his desire for lively debate, were admired by all who surrounded him. Kees and his first wife Pau Voûte (1916-1979) not only collected paintings, drawings, gouaches and the complete graphic works of Lucebert, but also started to assemble all published material relating to the artist. Many works were lent to Lucebert shows. Special exhibitions of the Groenendijk collection were held in Jerusalem (1962), Rotterdam, Baden-Baden (1964), Utrecht (1965) and in Leuven, Belgium (1981). In 1986 their major works by Lucebert were almost entirely donated to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (The Groenendijk-Voûte Collection) and were followed by the archives in 1996. Groenendijk did, however, keep some of the important works for his personal enjoyment. For example the beautiful Bokkerijders painting from 1961 (lot 612). In honour of the Groenendijk's exceptional gift, the Stedelijk Museum published the catalogue Lucebert in het Stedelijk in 1987.
Although the collection had a defined core, with Lucebert in the frontline, it always remained in dialogue with art works from those Dutch artists that had had a close relationship with Lucebert and with foreign artists such as Antonio Saura, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Günther Uecker, Lothar Fischer, Kurt Schwitters and Serge Poliakoff.
Another artist greatly admired by Groenendijk, was the print maker Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman. Not only did he collect his work, but promoted it outside of Holland. Together with Jan Martinet he was an active member of the Werkman Foundation. On a visit with Ad Petersen in 1964 to the studio of Arman he exchanged with him a work by Werkman (lot..). Groenendijk kept an open mind towards Contemporary Dutch art throughout his lifetime and continued to support new generations of artists, for example Frank van den Broeck. Groenendijk would invite them to his home and together with his second wife Tina Holt, helped to stimulate them in their work.
As an active member of the Amsterdam art community Kees Groenendijk was on the board of the Fodor Museum, The Amsterdamse Prentkring and was involved in organizing many exhibitions such as the large Cobra exhibition held in the Amsterdam Nieuwe Kerk in 1989.
The works in this sale are a diverse selection of paintings, sculptures, works on paper and ceramics. They reflect the enthusiasm of a Dutch collector greatly involved in the Contemporary Art scene during one of the most exciting periods in art history in the Netherlands.
The reason to draw some attention to the painter and poet Lucebert is that you will find many works by this interesting artist in this sale. An important part of the works on offer comes from the collection of Kees Groenendijk, but a major part of the works comes from various other sources.
Lucebert (1924-1994)
Although Lucebert (Lubertus J.Swaanswijk) did not participate in a single CobrA exhibition as a painter, he did have an important role in the movement as a poet. His debut was in the second number of the review Reflex with Minnebrief aan onze gemartelde Bruid Indonesia - Lover letter to our martyred Bride Indonesia. It was years later, after publishing his first five or six volumes, that he emerged more distinctly as a painter with an exhibition at the Galerie Espace in 1958 and in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Nonetheless, he has been repeatedly linked with Cobra as a painter, undoubtedly because so much of his work seems to embody the essence of CoBrA. This includes a very important aspect of Lucebert's work: thousands of drawings on unlined writing-pads, usually with pen and ink.This way of working offered Lucebert the possibility of switching from writing to drawing and vise versa. This spontaneous method links Lucebert with CoBrA and what went before. He was influenced by surrealism and he admired children's expressive drawings, primitive art and naive art. Lucebert was also interested in the art of the insane - from le facteur Cheval to the Bildnerei der Geisteskranken by Prinzhorn.
He mostly worked with Jazz music in the background, the most sublime form of improvisation of organized spontaneity.
In the late 1940's Lucebert employed a variety of styles. He never tried to hide the fact that he was influenced by such diverse artists as Picasso, Klee, Miro, Arp and by Steinberg's humour and visual sophistication. The eclecticism of Lucebert's work is no weakness but rather one of its attractions (lot 518, 597, 598).
In the 1950's, gradually, Lucebert drew more and more attention to drawing and less to poetry.
His drawings attracted more attention, his work was exhibited, discussed and occasionally purchased. Since 1952 he has lived in Bergen (N-H), far enough from Amsterdam to lead a quiet live and to concentrate on his work and family.
Kaspar Niehaus, an elderly art critic, drew Willem Sandberg's (former director of the Stedelijk Museum) attention to Lucebert. The upshot was a show at the Galerie Espace in Haarlem (lot 589) and the exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum in 1958, as well as the purchase of Lucebert's earliest paintings by the museum. Another important event was the exhibition 1961 organized by Edy de Wilde, director of the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven.
Around 1960 Lucebert embarked on a period of great activity. He painted a growing number of canvases (lot 594, 604) and started to etch. The works of the early 1960's belong to the best in Lucebert's oeuvre. A striking example is the impressive Bokkenrijders - Goatriders from 1961 (lot 612 and back cover) from the collection of Kees Groenendijk, and which was shown in the exhibition in Eindhoven.This painting bears all the characteristics of Lucebert's early work as well as features of his large painting oeuvre still to come. It's all there: graphic, imaginative, poetic, fantastic, deformed figuration and Lucebert's use of colour.
Lucebert's work became well-known. He took part in important exhibitions and had one-man shows at home and abroad. The Germans developed a keen interest in his work, which was promoted by leading art critic Albert Schulze Vellinghausen and Peter Leo of the Bochum Museum. Publisher Ellerman and Galerie Der Spiegel issued publications which also contained poems in a translation by Ludwig Kunz. In the United Kingdom, the Marlborough Gallery, London, organized an exhibition and put him on contract for a while. Throughout the years the impact of Lucebert's work has been great in Belgium, Scandinavia, Germany , Switzerland and The Netherlands. Through his success Lucebert started to travel more widely. Spain has been his favourite country, where he acquired a house in 1972 in Javea, Alicante. He had several Spanish friends, including painter Antonio Saura and writer Francisco Carrasquer, who translated his work and was responsible for the publication of an extensive Spanish anthology.
Generally speaking developements are hard to observe in Lucebert's work. It's more a case of groups of drawings and paintings dating from a particular period and displaying a stylistic context, such as the figurative acrylic paintings of around 1976 (lot 591), so is a whole series of paintings of about 1969 (lot 631, 632). In his work Lucebert reserves the right to employ any style he pleases. His work hovers between extremes: sometimes apparently governed by coincidence in a barely controlled chaos, and other times being precisely determined and defined. Without premediaton and with a minimum of means, he achieves a maximum of spontaneity and expression. Especially his paintings are crammed full and painted from edge to edge. Lucebert is often at his best in the sophisticated improvisation, seemingly emerging from nowhere.
The desire - and necessity- to keep all options open inevitably leads to what Lucebert once called "The Tyranny of Freedom", the title of a picture which he painted during the filming of Johan van der Keuken's "Een film voor Lucebert"( A Film for Lucebert, 1966) and an apt motto for a general appreciation of his work.
(From: Ad Petersen, Lucebert in het Stedelijk, Amsterdam, 1986, p.11-20)
The film "Een film voor Lucebert" 1966 bij Johan van der Keuken will be shown during the viewing days on 5,6,7,8 and 10 December at Christie's Amsterdam
Lucebert (1924-1994)
Vrouw in interieur - Woman in an interior
Details
Lucebert (1924-1994)
Vrouw in interieur - Woman in an interior
signed lower right Ostre Ludovico
caseine tempera on paper
56 x 45.5 cm
Executed circa 1948
Vrouw in interieur - Woman in an interior
signed lower right Ostre Ludovico
caseine tempera on paper
56 x 45.5 cm
Executed circa 1948