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FERDINAND ERFMANN (1901-1968) Ferdinand Erfmann was a peculiar character within the Amsterdam artscene around the middle of the 20th century. Although he held office on several committees of art societies, due to a deviant, isolated lifestyle and his curious paintings, he was always somewhat of an outsider. He never tried to be the centre of attention, that was simply not his nature. He lived an isolated life, troubled by depressions, in a small appartment surrounded by his paintings and his cats. For years on end he took care of his unhealthy sister during the day, whereupon he painted his works during the night, sometimes landscapes, but mainly scenes filled with big, muscled women, girls from the factory or prostitutes, acrobats and transvestites, all averse to any flattery. The present series of four works by his hand from the collection of De Beyerd, gives a beautiful bird's eye view of Erfmanns favorite subjects. Lambert Tegenbosch wrote in 1973 about the oeuvre of the Amsterdam artist: 'Erfmann the painter is a nocturnal writer of his alternately gloomy and carefree diary. His oeuvre is his diary. It is not an autobiography. It contains no facts for anything like historically accurate reports of events. It is pure phantasy. The paintings Erfmann wrote at night conjure up the day that he would like to have lived. That is why he painted the trapeze artists, the acrobats, the performers who so excelled in physical strength and agility that they could delight masses of people with their beautiful bodies and incredible daring. That is why he painted the seedy gentlemen with their trilbies, monocles and after dinner cigars, honouring the plump ladies of easy virtue with their rewarding visits. That is why he painted the Erfmann Venus - her thighs like fortresses, her arms strong enough to pull up a tree by the roots, ex-swimming champion now competing for erotic gold. The creator who peopled the world with creatures after his own image and likeness. During the day he went shopping for his sister, at night he acted the part of the performer in silken attire - an awe-inspiring wrestler for the world at large and for Venus a perfect lover'. (Lambert Tegenbosch in Ferdinand Erfmann, Amsterdam 1973, p. 30) Erfmann's own writings are explanatory for his special interest for big mannish girls and for men dressed in elegant feminin clothes. Tegenbosch' Venus, the strong woman, simply stands for his dreamwoman. In one of the many letters he wrote to himself, probably out of lonelyness, he describes her literally. After a reflection on his relation with his father, whom he holds responsible for his own inability to maintain a lasting relationship with a woman - a situation he equates with his failure in life, he comes to the conclusion that there is still hope for him: 'Perhaps it might be a solution if I were able to go to Germany, [the letter is from 1946], since there are of course plenty of women and girls to be found there. Should I find one who completely answers to my predelictions (slim body, small breasts, broad hips, muscular arms and legs) then there is still a possibility that I might be able to find some happiness after all' (see Tegenbosch, opcit p. 23). Not long after he found a new and bizar way of manifesting his personality and most probably to fight his depressions. He writes: 'Since 1947 and 1948 my life has been focussed on so-called transvestism; I have guided this in a specific direction, namely that of acrobatic transvestism. I order harem pants, shirts with or without "cold shoulder", to be made of satin, and then I have photographs taken.' These photographs eventually pleased him greatly. He wrote in 1958: 'Perfection has now been reached in the field of photography. With this latest acrobat series (...) I have at last got what I wanted. This is due to the following factors: 1. dark background 2. glossy print 3. lighting from above 4. harem pants 5. with belt, ballet-shoes, and cap 6. acrobatic dance postures (no wrestling postures) 7. ugly details like projecting shoulder-blades, ugly elbow-joint left arm camouflaged.' (see Tegenbosch, opcit p. 24) Only at the very end of his life, and much to his own surprise, he unexpectately achieved some success with a number of museum and gallery exhibitions. During his carreer as a painter he was always convinced of the fact that his works would never receive the proper admiration or understanding. In 1968, just after the first bigger exhibitions of his works had taken place, he still writes that he cannot see why he should bother to send paintings to museums. 'For they are all unsalable. Because they all shock people in the same way... they elicit remarks like "I think your work is perverse", "I find your work so amusing", I find your work so direct" etc. Such remarks are made by laymen.' (see Tegenbosch, opcit p. 22) Lambert Tegenbosch puts this attitude in a broader psychological perspective: 'Throughout his life Erfmann counted on not being understood. The first person to misunderstand him was Erfmann himself. He firmly believed that what he painted was none other than the simple disclosure of the truth - admittedly the truth was of another world, but at any rate it was a good likeness. In that he was mistaken. His classical and Platonic portrait of the other world is a maze of ambiguities: earnestness and fun, painted and not painted, art and anti-art, historical document and fiction, tragic and comic, all interwoven in an inextricable pattern.' (Tegenbosch, opcit p. 31)

Ferdinand Erfmann (1901-1968)

De walletjes II

Details

Ferdinand Erfmann (1901-1968)
De walletjes II
signed with initials and dated 'F.E. 1966' (lower left)
oil on canvas
60 x 40 cm.

Provenance

Galerie Siau, Amsterdam, where acquired by De Beyerd.

Exhibited

Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, Ferdinand Erfmann, 26 June - 10 September 1995.

Special notice

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