| Jan Schoonhoven
Photo: Lothar Wolleh, © Lothar Wolleh Estate, Berlin
|
For almost 40 years, Jan Schoonhoven (Delft, 1914-1994) worked on his highly distinctive monochrome reliefs, made of papier-mâché, paper and cardboard. It was these art works that earned him international recognition from the mid 1960s onwards.
Jan Schoonhoven’s monochrome relief was rooted in international developments in art. Schoonhoven and his artist-friends Armando, Jan Henderikse and Henk Peeters, exhibiting as Dutch Nul group, were closely linked to the international ZERO-movement (1958-1966). Jan Schoonhoven was an artist of his time, drawn to the 'spatialist' explorations of Lucio Fontana, to the essentialism of German Zero-artist Günther Uecker, and the playfulness of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Nevertheless, in the shelter of his hometown Delft, Schoonhoven came to conclusions that were wholly his own. |