Henk van Gemert - back on auction - 70's Collage - "earth, water, air & fire" BIG!! - Sold

• Impressive large and powerful expressionist abstract mixed media on paper, which the Amsterdam autodidact Henk van Gemert made in 1975 with acrylic paint, oil paint, paper, cardboard and watercolor. Signed and dated lower right. In good condition with some paint and paper loss at the edges. WITHOUT frame - loose-leaf.
  

Henk van Gemert was born on March 16, 1903 in Amsterdam and died there in 2002. He lost his father as a 4-year-old boy.

His foster father – the lithographer De Munter – discovered his talent for drawing at an early age. His mother, however, saw him more as a solid office clerk. De Munter won this battle of education and ensured that Van Gemert entered the service of the graphic company 'Van Leer & Co', where he would later benefit greatly from the knowledge he had gained. The war broke out and things went badly for Van Leer, which prompted Van Gemert to paint more. Van Gemert is therefore an autodidact par excellence.

He painted many Limburg landscapes in the area around Maastricht. Exhibitions of his work prompted the German Hermann Göring to buy his work. As a result, Van Gemert was invited to become a member of the Kultuurkamer. Van Gemert refused and went into hiding.

In the last years of the war Van Gemert came into contact with Karel Appel. They had a joint studio on the Zwanenburgwal in Amsterdam. Appel then still painted mainly naturalistically.

Friendship with De Jong – an amateur painter – (and owner of Weerdenstein castle on the Vecht where Henk also lived for a while) was the reason that Van Gemert and De Jong moved south and via Brussels to Aix-en-Provence. On the way, canvases painted by them were exchanged for food and shelter.

During his time in Amsterdam, Van Gemert combined his work as an artist with the job of tour guide at the Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. In between, he visited many southern European countries to paint. With his third wife, he moved south for good and went to live in a castle in Chomérac. In addition to restoring the castle, he founded a regional artists' association in the village (Arc Rochechauve Chomérac). Finally – in 1982 – Van Gemert moved on to southern Spain (La Coveta Fuma).

Van Gemert constantly changed his painting style and, in addition to being a watercolourist, was also a (pen)draftsman and oil painter of both landscapes and cityscapes.

He was a member of 'Stuwing' and the Federation of Associations of Professional Visual Artists.
Mentioned in Scheen, Jacobs.

(source: Caputovis)