'Un Affetto Speciale': Nanda Vigo and Jan Schoonhoven

Nanda Vigo, Cronotopo, 1964
Metal and glass, 46.5 × 35.5 × 7 cm
Private collection (formerly collection Jan Schoonhoven)

Lothar Wolleh, 1969, © Lothar Wolleh Estate, Berlin 
Günther Uecker (l.) and unknown guest at home with
​Schoonhoven (r.) in Delft. With Vigo's Cronotopo centre

Exhibition poster with a detail of Jan Schoonhoven's relief R61-5, Jaloezieënreliëf (1961), third line, second from the left

In March 1965, Italian architect and artist Nanda Vigo exhibited in Hans Sonnenberg’s Galerie Delta in Rotterdam. On that occasion Vigo also visited Jan Schoonhoven in his hometown Delft. Vigo had fond memories of Jan Schoonhoven: "When I think of him I can only smile", she told me in 2014. [1] With her passing, March 2020, generation ZERO lost one of its most colourful personalities.

The days before the opening of Nanda Vigo's exhibition in Rotterdam, Hans Sonnenberg hosted a joint visit by Vigo and Yayoi Kusama. Sonnenberg, who was a regular guest in the Schoonhoven home, decided to introduce them to the family. "They were kind of in my way that day, I was busy", Hans Sonnenberg recalled. "So I lent them my deux-chevaux to visit the Schoonhoven’s in Delft." [2]

The artist’s son Jaap Schoonhoven remembers that trip and the times in later years, when Nanda Vigo stayed overnight at the family’s home
 in Delft. Discussions about art were sometimes laborious; Vigo spoke English and French, but Schoonhoven did not, or hardly.

Some half a century later, Nanda Vigo still remembered Jan Schoonhoven as a kindred spirit and an influence on her own work. "We did not speak each other’s language, and communication was not always easy', she told me. 'Our approaches differed, as did our strategies. But we understood each other’s work, we felt a deep connection. Even without talking." [3]

A photograph from 1969 shows one of Nanda Vigo's Cronotopo's in Schoonhoven's living room. Jan Schoonhoven returned the favour and gave Vigo one of his reliefs in exchange. There was indeed, as Vigo recalled it, 'un affetto speciale' between the two, a special affection.

Notes:
[1] Nanda Vigo in conversation with the author, 12 May 2014.
[2] Hans Sonnenberg in conversation with the author, 23 May 2011.
[3] Nanda Vigo in conversation with the author, 12 May 2014.

---

'Zero Avantgarde 1965'
In 1965 Nanda Vigo curated an exhibition at Lucio Fontana's studio in Milan. The exhibition 'Zero Avantgarde 1965' was a truly international presentation, even beyond the European context. Until the end of 1966, the exhibition toured several Italian cities, including Brescia, Rome and Milan.

Participating artists:
Bernard Aubertin, Hans Bischoffshausen, Lucio Fontana, Hermann Goepfert, Hans Haacke, Yves Klein, Walter Leblanc, Heinz Mack, Piero Manzoni, Christian Megert, Henk Peeters, Otto Piene, George Rickey, Jan Schoonhoven, Jesús Rafael Soto, Ferdinand Spindel, Paul Talman, Erwin Thorn, Günther Uecker, Jef Verheyen, Nanda Vigo, and Herman de Vries

• Studio of Lucio Fontana, Milan, 27 March–May 1965
• Galleria del Cavallini, Venice, 4–14 May 1965
• Galleria Associazione Zen, Brescia, 15 October–4 Nov. 1966