Page 27 - Studio International - May 1973
P. 27
New forms of realism
in Dutch painting
Hans Sizoo
New realism in Dutch painting developed later Golden, realism was, however, no more than an
than the English and American pop art important intermediary stage between a more or
movement. That slow start had a clear cause : less expressionist start and a development
the entire change had to be brought about by in another direction or technique. Their
artists of a new generation. Lucassen, who was work will not be discussed in the present
the first and is still the most important new article.
realist in Holland, was 24 years old when he Of course there were, both before and after
made his first unambiguously realist painting in 1963, plenty of artists among the three or four
Reinier Lucassen
Tirol Landscape Just Before Sunset 1969 1963. The artists who followed in 1964 and thousand painters working in Holland who
Utrecht Hedendaagse Kunst 1965 were all younger than 25. For most of expressed themselves in realistic forms. Indeed,
Acrylic on canvas
Photo: Studio Hartland them, including Jan Dibbets and Daan van two of them, namely Pyke Koch and Co
Westerik, did so brilliantly. But no realist was
modern in the sense that he had benefited,
artistically, from abstract art. Proto-realists like
Hamilton and Paolozzi, Rivers and Johns simply
did not exist in Dutch art in the early sixties,
not even a modern Schwitters-like
Rauschenberg. The nearest example was Roger
Raveel, the brilliant painter from Belgium, who
in the early fifties was already painting in a way
that can be described, to some extent, as
proto-realist. His work first became known in
the Netherlands in 1964, since when its influence
has been considerable. Advanced painting in the
Netherlands before 1964 was still so full of the
echoes of Cobra expressionism, that the mere
possibility of a realistic avant-garde seemed
unlikely. Realism — except in the form of
object-art of the kind of French Nouveau
Realisme — was taboo, so much so that even the
work of Pyke Koch and Co Westerik was not
taken quite seriously. This was a misjudgement,
for their work stands up very well to good Cobra
art. But it is typical of the situation of before
1964 that the only older Dutch artist who gave
an incentive to the new development was not
a realist but a Cobra artist : Lucebert. For about
eight years now he has been the most vital
Dutch artist of that movement, possibly because
his work has always been less wildly
expressionist, more narrative and poetical than
typical Cobra art. Together with Jean
Dubuffet he helped newcomers such as
Lucassen on their way. In drawings and
collages the young artists gave direct meaning to
what in the work of Lucebert and Dubuffet was
still vague and associative. To this they added
their abstract and realistic collage fragments
which — unlike Rauschenberg's — retain their
specifically realist or abstract character on the
whole. But it was from Rauschenberg that the
strongest incentive came to continue in this
direction. All the other influences which came
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