Han HulsbergenJohannes Evert Hulsbergen La Peine

Painter, Sculptor and Author

12 May 1901 (Hengelo/Holland) 20 March 1989 (Blaricum/Holland)

“Much energy and real talentsuffer severely

on the highways of indifference”

© 2002

page

Self portrait 2Evolution of style 4Biography “His life and Work” 5The period of 1940 till 1956 11Exhibitions and References 20

It comes out at lastafter a thousand yearscool and determined

a simple word driftingto embarrasing questions

on a rack out of reach

dabby habits maintain superior actionsin a sense of hopelesness

moveto drive out shabby parts

from dreadful periods

dreaming dehydrated faithrocking its nerves

Acknowledgment: This publication was made possible ith the efforts and support of: Fieneke Hulsbergen.

Written, published and produced by Roy HulsbergenMonaco

Photography Roderick & Roy Hulsbergen - Poetry by Han Hulsbergen© 2002 by Roy Hulsbergen

All rights reserved.The photographs, texts and graphics of this publication or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without prior permission of the publisher or its legal representatives

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CONTENTS

Auto portrait1938 Oils on canvas100 x 120 cm

Love, compromise and logicthree keys in the human mind

Love, with a touch of magic lightens the wayto one and the other

Compromise, needed as a rudder in all behaviourfights, madness

Perfect logic, is deadlier than deathhating emotional causes and superciliousness

March ‘693

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1. 1949 Dagdroomster (Day dreamer) - 80 x 200 cm2. 1953 Serveerster (Serving girl)- 50 x 60 cm3. 1953 Circe - 80 x 100 cm

an Hulsbergen born in Hengelo (the Netherlands) at the very begin-ning of the 20th century, was an artist with many facets.He received his first painting kit when he was 8 years old and started to draw and paint from books.When he finished college at 18 he had to go and earn and put money aside to pay his way eventually to the Amsterdam Academy. He worked for a photographer and retouched portrait photographs. He became quite expert in this field and had for a while his photostudio in Middelburg.When he had saved enough money Han took private drawing lessons at the «Normaal School» in Amsterdam to prepare his examn for the State Academy of Amsterdam.In 1926 the examn consisted mainly of precise drawing of statues and perspective. During this time he made a portrait of Professor de Vries.

After sitting the preliminary exams he was accepted and was allowed a government grant. He studied at the academy under Professor Wolter and Professor Roland Holst both hard line teachers, as well as Professor Bronned (sculpturing), who brought either their pupils to the highest levels or turned them into a drop out. At 26 years old, his dreams and professional career were becoming a tangible reality.While living on the Plantage Middenlaan he obtained some commissions for stage decoration for the Rika Hoppe Theater.The serious and “solid” training of the Amsterdamse Academie, where the painting techniques, proper use of materials and preparation of canvasses were as important, if not more, as the talent and the style, in sofar it was clearly related to classical painting. The indepth study of paints and colours enabled him to make his own paints throughout his professional life and understand the infinite behaviour of almost any material.After two years he obtained together with Gerard Röling a loge at the Academy. That summer he travelled to Mallorca and the South of Spain and painted among others gypsy girls and children portraits for the family Fernandez in Granada.By his welmannered and shy behaviour he always was warmly received by families in foreign countries.Han finished the Amsterdam Academy with flying colours, which resulted in a government grant to extend his studies at the Academia della Bell’ Arte in Florence (Italy) under Professor Casnesa.He worked in ufici and studied the Florentin masters.The time in Italy at the womb of the great italian classics, gave an additional depth and dimension to his work and added an italian touch to his individual style.An exhibition of his work at the acadamy of Florence incited the Corriera della Sera to write an article titled “Il Botticelli di 20° siecla veni da Ollanda” (The botticelli of the 20th Century comes from Holland).

Upon his return to Holland, the real challenge was yet to begin, find a studio with nor-thern light and start working for a living. All beginnings are tough, but gradually people found Hulsbergens’ third floor double studio on the Singel canal 137 in Amsterdam to have their or their loved ones portraits painted for posterity. Numerous short trips in the thirties took him to Paris, Madrid, Toledo and Granada to study the old masters and have a first hand visual experience of the localities.

His future wife Fieneke van der Sijp he met in 1935 in Amsterdam, where she studied piano at the conservatory and was engaged in the Amsterdam National Ballet. Han just had finished a large

5

THE MANAND

HIS WORKH

canvas «Alegorie der Muziek» as well as the portrait of Fieneke in the dunes.They married in 1936 and moved to the Weteringschans across from the Rijks Museum. Among their friends were many artists, actors and writers and Han spend much time at the «Kring» (Circle for Artists)

For the important Amsterdam annual art exhibition (Arti et Amiciciae) Hulsbergen was to send in some of his work. He had been so busy making portraits of the “in crowd” that he had nothing to send. His clients though were happy to lend their paintings and to be part of the display at the exhibition.That year of 1939, his portraits were elected by the jury, and Han Hulsbergen became the painter to receive by Her Majesty the Queen the Van Collem Prize. His work was recognised, he was to make a portrait of Her Royal Highness Queen Emma.

1939 the couple moved to Baricum a village of farmers, tucked away in the sandy briar fields of Holland, where the light was very special. It became the hide-out of artist; painters, sculptors, architects, authors and poets. (Today Televison people, performing artists, bankers and of course real estate agents)The artists lived in harmonious cohabitation with the farmers, the latter worked the land the others painted it or put it into words. That was fine with the farmers. Gradually more artists discovered the virtues of this little “enclave”, once the proprietary stalking ground of Anton Mauve, now sheltered; Han Hulsbergen, Raoul Heijnckes, Han Hamdorff, Prof. Roland Holst, Geni Peter, Cees van Meegeren, Hooykaas and later Paul Koning, Karel Appel, Tajiri, Paul de Lussanet... Other settlers installed themselves, ir. Van Gogh with the largest collection of his nephews works (which he donated to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, on the condition that the city would build it), Mr. B. with the most amazing collection of Piet Mondriaan.

But it was not to remain so nice, World War II suddendly knocked on the door, invasion, occupation, hunger winter, house searches, Canadian shot-down pilots hiding in the attic, jewish friends to be sheltered.Han had not been aware of the coming war and had gone to Twente for some portrait commissions. with great difficulty by bicycle and foot he returned to Blaricum.Enough subjects to express on canvas, but no materials, they were as scarce as butter and flour.Romantisism was past, world reality had burst into the peaceful country life. Visual expression descibed another dimension of mankind: the atrocities, the suffering, dictators. These had to be expressed, be put on canvas. Children were born, they needed to be fed, survival became number one, closeness with friends and neighbours grew. Only together we can survive while the underground resistance was trying to bite back at the opressor.Han’s art took a different expression, another dimension, the figures were less precise, the laborious fine painting and romantism, was replaced by a quicker dynamic brushstroke capturing the underlying power and showing what the people felt, where they were, how they suffered and how they tried to maintain against all odds their dignity. The five “war canvasses”, finished in 1948, some of them of important size, featuring crowds of people, were very powerful and depicted the era of country side living conditions in occupied Holland.

6

THE MAN AND HIS WORK

A triptique “House Search”, Hunger Winter” and “The Wisper” were hung at his first post war exhibtion in 1946 and sent the art critics howling. What happened to the Hulsbergen, the romantist, did he lose the touch? But none of these critics could neglect or miss the pure genius, the power and intensity of expression, neither the talent.

As a non conforming artist Hulsbergen went into the new post war era, reaping the acknowledgement of the international art buying world.

In 1952 he was send by the Government for a study trip to Greece, where he installed himself in an apartment in Piraeus, overlooking the bay with the backdrop of the mountains, on which the previous Greeks had so thoughtfully build the Parthenon for everyone to see.Han was overwhelmed with the sheer beauty, the architecture, frescos and sculptures of the ancient Greeks, as welll as their current life, the people in the streets, the women washing, the things one could transport on a donkey, the fishing boats in the ports, the houses, the ruins, the Oracle of Delphi and... Hydra, where once discovered, he instantly moved his head-quarters.If he was not talking to people or having a drink and a bite to eat, he was studying mythology or drawing. One sketch book after the other was filled with sketches and drawings of scenery, people, animals, mythological scenes and ruins. There really was no time to make a canvas, time was precious, the impressions needed to be “fixed” now, before they’re gone.Successfull exhibitions in Holland, New York, Dublin, London, Oslo and Pittsburg followed in succession, while Han feverishly worked in his thatched roof studio on the Grenslaan in Blaricum. Always searching to get to the pure essence of painting. Reducing the number of lines, to achieve a more powerfull expression in portraits using five or six base lines, introducing angles in normally round faces.At the The Hague national exhibition Hulsbergen received the “Royal Begeer Prize”.

Suddenly his work was stamped “Cubist”. But it was not cubist as such. It was his own style, his own reduction of flowery worked out brush strokes to a more bold figurative tech-nique, full of expression and tension in the lines and composition. Almost any major scene he had painted before in his precise detailed technique for which the artworld carried him on their hands, he reworked in this fast flowing spontaneous cubist like signature. His talent, his indepth knowledge of technique and a very steady hand enabled him to relate complex scenes back to a single continuous line. A composition just like a signature. With all its tensions and expression bundled in this one-time-only brush stroke. This work breathes the talent as an artist, who has conquered the resilience of the brush, the resistance of oilpaint and the unyielding canvass.When the art world, which had been holding their breath, finally accepted his “new style” and started to discover the quality and finesse of the stroke, Hulsbergen went yet off on to something totally different.

Through his continuous experimentation with materials, he found a concrete mixture which enabled him to sculpt as one would with clay. He called his invention “Meliora Beton”. As a sculptor he worked the metal armour and the concrete into sheer fragile looking sculptures and as a painter coloured and sealed the grey stone material as if it were a canvas.As from 1955 his “Meliora” sculptures became a great success with architects and project developers,

7

as a result a number of commissions came from government institutions as well as commercial corporations for murals and free standing sculptures.His Meliora sculptures were exhibited in a number of galleries, parks and museums in Holland and England. While sculpturing the rough concrete material Han still continued painting and moving forward with a style and composition of his own. More and more his paintings became abstract, not only using the traditional paints but other materials were often included, wood, sand, mother of pearl, resins, metals, glass, bottle caps, shells...

In 1967 through the aquaintance of the owner of a Dutch enamel factory, Han started painting with enamel. “Playing with fire”, as he expressed it. Since enamel is nothing less than liquified glass at high temperature and cooled down in steps, Hulsbergen, with his particular talent of immediately grasping the particularities of materials, very quickly made oversized “paintings”, which to the expert opinion of specialists could not be done.But it worked, the material held together and it did not crack even after the most rugged tests.His enamels were an explosion of myriad colours, enhanced by the high intensity of the glass surface. After experimenting with different types of consistencies and techniques he was commissioned to do an enamel wall of eight meters high and fifty meters long, made of metal sheets of 4 by 1 meter. A great new avenue opened for the factory, which meant for Hulsbergen to move on to new roads of experimentation.

Han took a walk about to Australia and stayed a year. Submerged by the beauty of the Australian outback and the vivid colours of the rocks, he could not sit idle and almost imme-diately started to work. His canvasses were made from available materials that australian nature provided. Sand, rocks, eucalyptus wood, leaves, wool, seashells; using his technique and experience to blend and make paints, glue and compose. His Oz work is different, so different it is Australian. A cameleon capturing the intrinsic part that makes an Australian different from other beings in the rest of the world. Before his return voyage to the old continent two exhibitions were held, one in the Travel-lodge Gallery and one in the Skywalk both in Sydney.Back in Holland, back to the old thatched roof studio, back to feverishly working, back to the bicycle, his main means of transportation till the end of his life. Drawing, painting and returning to good old canvas and oils.Some exhibitions in galleries and museums, but Han could not really be bothered, there was still so much to do so much to finish. Feverishly afraid to run out of time.

Together with Fieneke they went back to Greece. The country had changed, pollution was eating at the once sparkling white ruins and columns, Athens was a cacophony of polluting cars. But essentially some of the beauty was still there and most important the light, it had not changed, Hydra had barely changed. Han just observed with his experienced eye and soaked up the light and the intensity of the shadows.Back in Holland he delved into the deepest recesses of his studio, and relocated an old wooden trunk and delved out the drawings and sketches made in Greece in the fifties.And finally found the peace of mind, to put on canvas these most cherished visual memories of the days long past that he remembered now so vividly. He just had to see the light again and it all came back through to the sketches like snapshots of the past.

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HIS LIFE AND HIS WORK

Han’s eyes were not focussing anymore, there was a blurr in front, the cornea was detaching, it did not stop him from painting, the steady experienced hand guided him. These canvasses are different, everything he had experimented and experienced, with all his knowledge and technique, he produced canvasses of scenery and people, as in a dream. One sees what they are doing, one imagines what they are thinking, it is not sharp, you can see the leaves in the trees if the wind would not have been so strong. You see everything with your mind’s eye, in reality you see an indication. It is impressionist but at the same time so infinitely precise.

The circle was closing. His oeuvre was taking its final quintessence, everything was there and at the same time there was nothing, make believe for the beholder, imagine your own painting the one you cherish, the one you make up in your own mind, the actual canvas is your guide. Everything is nothing and nothing is everything. The essence of things past and things to come. At the age of 88, Han Hulsbergen deeply understood life and became one with the eternal omnipresent universe.

Go to Han Hulsbergen on the web at www.artforbeauty.com

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Fieneke, 1934 Son Roderick, 1941

1974 Cobolt, 100 x 120, oil on canvass

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This period is marked by a gradual but yet definite change of style or more a change of touch. World War II changed numerous things in peoples mind and appreciation of life as it was. For Han it was isolation from world information and his personal feeling towards happenings in the world and specially things in life around him. He did not agree to these happenings, which seemed so futile, so unneccesary, most of it so unfair.His soul was agitating, he was not a political figure, nor was he a soldier, but a painter. And only through his art he could express his unrest and disapproval.The subjects of his paintings ranged from current life, (his compassion with the suffering of people), mythology and history subjects, (to show that almost everything people have done to one another has already been done numerous times before), to subjects like women, clowns (who make people laugh, while having their own sadness), characters from tales, who depict their own story (Don Quihote, The Rattenvanger, The Prophets, Ghengis Khan, Europa and the Bull).His precise and fine touch gradually was replaced by a more bold stroke, outlining the subject. Yet with his fine precise touch to the corner of the eyes and slight twitch to the mouths to give the exact expression to the faces. Always people in his paintings, because it is them that make this world. Quite often there are birds, doves or horses (representing peace and liberty).Hans’ knowledge of ancient history was giant, giving him an almost eternal choice of subjects to combine with current life and events.Gradually while experimenting he found he could make an abstraction of his bold stroke by giving it sharper angles. His cubist form of painting, while not being cubist in it’s essence. At a closer view it is a pure abstraction of fine painting, the full expression of character is all there. In a sense it is like a caricature, but not meaning to poke fun, but in an attempt to bring out clearer the meaning and the intrinsic story of the character.Basically Han was thinking in abstact, non figurative painting as from 1946, he just had not made the big step yet to go all the way. His schooling and the art critics still had their weight in the scales and probably he was not ready yet.Thus during the period of 1944 till 1955 Han was still thrown back and forth, painting his fine touch portraits, scenes in this bold stroke and scenes in his “cubist” style. Moreover what is style? It’s all put down conveniently after the fact. A painter is continually searching and making things happen, that come out of the inner recesses of the mind using his talent and techniques. That process cannot be guided or put on hold, it just flows.

The colour scheme of these paintings are either in blue- or earth tones, close to the most basic natural colours of paints, and very balanced in the use of adjacent colours. Pure lead white is used to give the light accents and light direction. Using his own paint formulaes, thorough preparation of the canvas or panel and the marter hair brushes from 1925 (from Heydenrijk in Amsterdam) give a total new dimension to his rich oeuvre.Often working in a kind of frenzy, taking as a base the folds seen in a cushion or a sheet, he finished one canvass after the other. Often working on multiple paintings, one preparing, the other drying, the next ready for the final touch.Quite often when his work was finally hanging at an exhibition, with the strong scent of natural terpentine still evaporating, Han would say, “Did I paint that? I can’t remember how I did it.” And like a child,”It’s quite nice”. Find his painings on the web

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THE PERIOD1940-1956

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Allegoria of music Collection Singer Museum Laren

Dolle Dinsdag (Crazy Tuesday) 1944 - From a series of war paintingsCollection City council Blaricum

1. Han at his studio in Laren with meliora sculpture.2. Posing with an abstract3. In the studio at the Grenslaan in Blaricum.4. Checking the glowing hot art coming out of the oven at the enamel factory.

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“Meliora” concrete sculptures

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Fieneke in the dunes - 1938

Don quihote - oil on wood panel - 1951

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Bull fight - gouache - 1950

Vrouw met Kaars ( Woman with candle)1956, Oils on canvassize 85 x 120 cm

Like a long legged flyher mind moves upon silence

be a wonderful stropheby wondering yeats

doesn’t reach my mindor bring tears to the eyes

she can translate with her eyes allrightbut a long legged fly

is no dream but a scream

‘7016

Mars1946, oils on canvas, 95 x 85

Girls flutteringcarelesly in all directions

overstep boundaries of safety

instead of right connectionsgiveaways have no need

to collectfree for all

has no respect

‘6917

Meisje met Konijn (Girl with Rabbit)1940, oils on canvassize 80 x 110 cm

Vrouw met spiegel (Woman with mirror)1950, oils on canvassize 80 x 120 cm

Praying on crying childrenat the prime of this age

after 50 years and 2 warscrying over playing children

teens and twenniesfalling out of style

to protest against deep morose incidentsand human’s brittlebarriere of mercy

when refusals matter moremalodorous steps supplied by

foggy alterationshow many are the times

when leading mendo not know what they are doing

dwelling on a wide rangeof interpretation

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Rechter (Judge)1946, oils on canvassize 80 x 90

Are we still at that low state of immoralitycrushing the middle ages

cynical flames burn our imagined peaceenslaved in passion

charmed by coloured wordsdisarranged by means

more dangerousthan Wall Street Journal

changes this mentality remains

reflected at the state now reached

January ‘6919

1933 Arti et Amicitiae - Amsterdam1934 Academia della Bell’ Arte - Florence1935 Pulgri Studio - The Hague1935 Stedelijk Museum (St-Lucas) - Amsterdam1936 Arti et Amicitiae (Van Collem Prize) - Amsterdam1936 Modern Art Museum - Oslo 1937 Arti et Amicitiae - Amsterdam1937 Carnegie Institute (The International Exhibition) - Pittsburg, U.S.A.1939 Residence Bode (Contemporary Art) - The Hague1939 Openbare Leeszaal - Laren, Holland1943 Royal Palace Amsterdam (Kunst in Nood) - Amsterdam1946 Gallery Hamdorf - Laren, Holland1948 Hengelose Kunstzaal - Holland1948 Moderne Boekhandel - Amsterdam1949 Victor Waddington Galleries - Dublin,

Ireland1949 Artgallery Leffelaar - Haarlem, Holland1950 Kunstliefde - Utrecht, Holland1950 National Gallery - New York, U.S.A.1951 Arti et Amicitiae (Group of Six) -

Amsterdam1953 Stedelijk Museum - Amsterdam1954 National Museum Twente - Holland1955 GSA - Hilversum, Holland1956 Museum Boymans van Beuningen - The

Hague1956 International Jaarbeurs (War and Peace) -

Utrecht, Holland1956 Gallery Hamdorf (Sculptures) - Holland1958 Museum Fodor - Amsterdam1958 Menkema Borgh - Holland1959 National Building Centre (Sculptures) -

Rotterdam1960 Museum Beverwijk (60th anniversary) -

Beverwijk, Holland1961 Goois Museum - Hilversum, Holland1961 Gallery Kartina - Amsterdam1962 Central Museum - Utrecht, Holland1963 Beelden in Blaricum (Three Sculptors) - Blaricum, Holland1964 Beelden in Westerbork (Sculptures) - Westerbork, Holland1966 Grosvenor Gallery - London1967 Building Centre (Sculptures and Enamels) - London1968 Travellodge Gallery - Sydney, Australia1968 Skywalk Australian Square - Sydney, Australia

1969 De Knipscheer - Laren, Holland1971 Gallery Hamdorf - Laren, Holland1973 Townhall Zaltbommel - Holland1974 Singer Foundation (Honorary Exhibition)

- Laren, Holland1976 Rosa Spier Foundation - Laren, Holland1983 Townhall Blaricum (Honorary Exhibition)

- Holland1992 Museum Henriëtte Polak - Zutphen, Holland1992 Castle de Voorst - Eefde, Holland

Private collectors, government institutions and industrial corporations have purchased or commissioned Han Hulsbergen’s work.

An excerpt of the public collectors of his works:Her Majesty the Queen of HollandDAF, Van Doorne’s Automobiel Fabrieken Philips Gloeilampen Fabrieken N.V.Royal Dutch ShellHolland Amerika Lijn (HAL)Kon. Ned. Scheepvaart Maatschappij (KNSM)KLMNederlandse Spoorwegen (NS)Fokker Aeronautic Factories Panam N.Y.McKinsey & Company Inc.Schlenker Insurance Co.DRAKA FactoriesWMFErven Lucas BolsAKZO (AKU and Organon)Unilever (Lever Brothers)Utrechtse JaarbeursDEMKANS BankBank Labouchere (Morgan Bank)Pierson Heldring & Pierson BankMees Pierson BankAMRO BankSpaarbankBuilding Centre

The city counsils of: Blaricum, Laren, Hengelo, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Zaltbommel, Rotterdam, Groningen, Leeuwarden, Maastricht, Bussum, Hilversum, Edinbourg, Dublin

Museums: Stedelijk Museum, Museum Fodor, Carnegie Institute, National Gallery N.Y., Singer Foundation, Rosa Spier Foundation, Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Centraal Museum, Smyrnoff collection

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EXHIBITIONS