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拍品專文
Jan Schoonhoven's powerful, white geometric works were created out of the destruction of World War II. The Dutch artist's response was to develop a body of work that featured a series of grids with a clear commitment to egalitarian order; the strict lines of the relief are enhanced by the purity of its composition, where no particular color, material or individual element is dominant.
Schoonhoven's work came to prominence with the formation of the Dutch-based Informele Groep, later to become the Nul Groep (Zero Group) in 1957. Around the same time German artists Otto Piene, Heinz Mack and Günter Uecker founded the Gruppe Zero in Düsseldorf. Advocating the integration of light and movement into a two-dimensional painted surface, they wanted to emphasize expression by means of monolithic plane and repetitive forms. The following year Schoonhoven was invited to join the Zero artists when they exhibited in Rotterdam, where they were also joined by the Italian artist Piero Manzoni.
It was also during this time that Schoonhoven had begun developing his characteristic relief works, produced using papier maché. Initially these were colored and irregular, but in 1960 he commenced producing his pure white and symmetrically geometric reliefs. It was never Jan Schoonhoven's goal to create new kinds of visual forms. His reliefs can for example consist of deductions from wall grills or Venetian blinds. In the spirit of Zero he wished to show us the beauties of modern life.
In the beginning of the sixties his reliefs were very much orientated on rectangular shapes. Later in this decade he developed new and slightly more complicated grids, for example the Vierkant met Diagonalen, dated 1967, previously in the Peter Stuyvesant Collection (Janneke Wesseling, Jan Schoonhoven, Ghent 1990, p. 64, no. 50 (illustrated)). This reliefs shows the same grid as the present lot but with a larger format. With these variations he kept on experimenting with the effect of the work on the viewer. Schoonhoven believed the viewer was necessary to complete the work. In his work the effect of light falling on the deep recesses of his grids creates shadows which fluctuate and move with the changing levels of daylight and the shifting position of the viewer.
Schoonhoven was famous for his meticulous ordered titles, with all three-dimensional works starting with the R for relief and then the year and number. This 'numbering' was added to the works that were offered in the gallery; most works were sold through Galerie Orez in The Hague. The present lot was a gift and therefore lacks this title.
Schoonhoven continued to play a central role in European Post War art for over a decade. He joined Yayoi Kusama's happenings in Delft, when she covered his body in polka dots, using it as a canvas for her art. He exhibited throughout the continent and in 1972 his work was featured in the Amsterdam Paris Düsseldorf exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
'I feel closer to American Minimalism than to the Nouveau Realisme of Yves Klein. For me, minimal art is the American variant of Zero art' (J. Schoonhoven, quoted in R. Damsch-Wiehager, Nul: die Wirklichkeit als Kunst fundieren, die niederländische Gruppe Nul, 1960-1965, und heute, Stuttgart 1993, p.117).
Schoonhoven's work came to prominence with the formation of the Dutch-based Informele Groep, later to become the Nul Groep (Zero Group) in 1957. Around the same time German artists Otto Piene, Heinz Mack and Günter Uecker founded the Gruppe Zero in Düsseldorf. Advocating the integration of light and movement into a two-dimensional painted surface, they wanted to emphasize expression by means of monolithic plane and repetitive forms. The following year Schoonhoven was invited to join the Zero artists when they exhibited in Rotterdam, where they were also joined by the Italian artist Piero Manzoni.
It was also during this time that Schoonhoven had begun developing his characteristic relief works, produced using papier maché. Initially these were colored and irregular, but in 1960 he commenced producing his pure white and symmetrically geometric reliefs. It was never Jan Schoonhoven's goal to create new kinds of visual forms. His reliefs can for example consist of deductions from wall grills or Venetian blinds. In the spirit of Zero he wished to show us the beauties of modern life.
In the beginning of the sixties his reliefs were very much orientated on rectangular shapes. Later in this decade he developed new and slightly more complicated grids, for example the Vierkant met Diagonalen, dated 1967, previously in the Peter Stuyvesant Collection (Janneke Wesseling, Jan Schoonhoven, Ghent 1990, p. 64, no. 50 (illustrated)). This reliefs shows the same grid as the present lot but with a larger format. With these variations he kept on experimenting with the effect of the work on the viewer. Schoonhoven believed the viewer was necessary to complete the work. In his work the effect of light falling on the deep recesses of his grids creates shadows which fluctuate and move with the changing levels of daylight and the shifting position of the viewer.
Schoonhoven was famous for his meticulous ordered titles, with all three-dimensional works starting with the R for relief and then the year and number. This 'numbering' was added to the works that were offered in the gallery; most works were sold through Galerie Orez in The Hague. The present lot was a gift and therefore lacks this title.
Schoonhoven continued to play a central role in European Post War art for over a decade. He joined Yayoi Kusama's happenings in Delft, when she covered his body in polka dots, using it as a canvas for her art. He exhibited throughout the continent and in 1972 his work was featured in the Amsterdam Paris Düsseldorf exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.
'I feel closer to American Minimalism than to the Nouveau Realisme of Yves Klein. For me, minimal art is the American variant of Zero art' (J. Schoonhoven, quoted in R. Damsch-Wiehager, Nul: die Wirklichkeit als Kunst fundieren, die niederländische Gruppe Nul, 1960-1965, und heute, Stuttgart 1993, p.117).