Simon Vinkenoog - Krijttekening: En plein vol - 1993

Screen print by Simon Vinkenoog. Title: Enattendant(In the meantime). Year: 1993. Tabletop dimensions: H44 x W44cm. Dimensions representation: H30 x W21cm. The work is signed at the bottom right by the artist. The authenticity of the work offered is fully guaranteed. A certificate of authenticity will be emailed upon request.

The work can also be picked up in 's-Gravenzande (near The Hague (Scheveningen), Rotterdam and Delft and 5 minutes from the beach). The term for collection, with advance payment, is very long. In other words, the buyer can pick up the work weeks or even months later and, if possible, combine it with a visit to one of the aforementioned cities or the beach. The work can also be sent via Postnl. Our shipping days are Tuesday and Thursday.

Simon Vinkenoog (Amsterdam, 18 July 1928 – 12 July 2009) was a Dutch writer, poet and recitalist.

Young years

Vinkenoog was born on July 18, 1928 at 9:10 AM as the only child of Hendrik Albertus Vinkenoog and Anna van Meel. After the divorce of his parents in 1937, he grew up with his mother in the Amsterdam district of De Pijp.

In 1944 he obtained his secondary school diploma and joined Querido publishing house. He fathered a child, married and moved in with his mother-in-law. Within six months the relationship broke down and Vinkenoog moved back to his mother's house. In 1948 he went to Paris with his future second wife, Judith, eight years his senior, where he started working for UNESCO as an assistant in the books and publications department.

Fifties

At the age of 21 he started the Dutch literary magazine Blurb. He explained the title as follows: "We no longer believe in finding scabrous words in pre-existing dictionaries, so we have chosen: blurb. One meaning of which is gibberish". About his starting points he wrote: "Our possibilities are still unlimited, although we must defend ourselves against the extreme left and the extreme right and yet avoid the dangerous middle".

Eight issues of this magazine appeared in the period 1950-51, mimeographed and in limited edition. Until no. 4, Vinkenoog published the magazine from Paris as a one-man publication. Other experimental writers then joined in, such as Hans Andreus, Armando, Hugo Claus, Lucebert and Paul Rodenko. Work by Jan Hanlo and WF Hermans was also published in the magazine, as well as poetry by Hans Lodeizen, who died young in 1950.

On June 1, 1951, the eighth and last number appeared with the words: "Let's keep it nice, don't make it literature". Together with Braak, Blurb ushered in the era of the Vijftigers. In 1951 Vinkenoog published the illustrious anthology Atonaal, which is regarded as the first public manifesto of the Vijftigers, who called themselves atonal poets.

In 1950 he debuted as a poet with Wondkoorts in the poetry series De Windroos.

Later life

Simon Vinkenoog (1966)

Vinkenoog at the publication of Vinkenoog Collected in Hotel de Goudfazant on October 12, 2008.

Over the years he developed more and more as a performer who made a major contribution to the interest in poetry in countless performances. The intensity and enthusiasm with which he spoke on subjects such as sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll made him a personification of the hippie generation, which he remained to the end.

On February 28, 1966, Vinkenoog organized "Poëzie in Carré", a manifestation in which a large number of Dutch poets participated and in which spirits related to him, such as Jules Deelder and Johnny the Selfkicker, broke through as poets and performers.

Vinkenoog gained a lot of experience with hallucinogenic drugs after taking LSD several times in 1959 under medical supervision for examination. Founder Ted Klautz of the esoteric magazine Bres asked him in 1968 for an article about LSD. Until 2004, a long series of contributions followed in the World in Motion section.

In 1969, Simon Vinkenoog and Boudewijn de Groot wrote the lyrics for the single Captain Decker and the B-side Steps into space by De Groot's English-language group The Tower. This song was re-released in 1994 in a modified form, with the voice of Vinkenoog reciting the (English) lyrics, by Richard Janssen's Dutch band Shine. In 1993 the first Johnny van Doorn Prize was awarded to him.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Simon Vinkenoog also became a popular author among students who read his books for their compulsory book list and liked to correspond with him about his work, partly due to his performances at "readers' evenings". Because responding to fan mail could be quite time consuming, he thought of the tactful response of getting such letter writers in touch with each other about his work.

At the beginning of 2006 he had a new project with the one-man band Spinvis, in which Vinkenoog read poems. A CD of this has been released, called Ja! (on which again a 1969 version of Captain Decker was released, now under the title Flying Dutchman). In July 2008 the successor, Rhythmbox, appeared.

Eden was the name of his garden house on the allotment garden park Buitenzorg in North Amsterdam. Simon Vinkenoog and Edith lived there every year from spring to October. At the park he was always present at the opening of exhibitions and played bingo in the canteen.

Passing away

Vinkenoog's right lower leg was amputated on 19 June 2009 in the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis in East Amsterdam due to problems with the blood vessels and unbearable pain. Although doctors deemed him incapable of rehabilitation with a prosthesis because of his age and prepared him for a wheelchair and admission to a nursing home, Vinkenoog was determined to be able to walk again with an artificial leg. He initially recovered well and hoped to "celebrate my 81st birthday [...] in the garden park with some chosen friends and relatives with Edith by my side in good weather", but on July 10, 2009, in the Amsterdam Revalidation Center ( nowadays Reade) at the Overtoom suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and fell into a coma. Almost immediately it was clear that the situation was hopeless. Due to a large amount of blood in the brain, all functions, except heartbeat and breathing, had stopped. Vinkenoog died on July 12, 2009 at 1:40 am in the VU medical center in Amsterdam.

He was buried on July 18, 2009 (which would have been his 81st birthday) at the Sint Barbara Cemetery in Amsterdam-West. At this cemetery he has been "closer of service" five times at the funeral of lonely deceased. Beforehand, his coffin was carried around the allotment garden park Buitenzorg in North Amsterdam. After the funeral, a bonfire was lit in the artists' village of Ruigoord. Vinkenoog had previously expressed the wish to be burned here in order to disappear from the world.

In person

Vinkenoog married six times, successively: in 1946 to Jenny Lefevere (1927-), in 1950 to Judic Cohen (1920-2011), in 1958 to Ilse (Niesje) Monsanto (1937-1989), in 1964 to Reineke van der Linden (1943-2016), in the 1970s/80s with Barbara (Maria) Mohr (1937-) and in 1989 with Edith Ringnalda (1954-). His last marriage was concluded on September 1, 1989 by Amsterdam mayor Ed van Thijn. Vinkenoog was together with Ringnalda until his death in 2009.

He had four children:

son Robert (1947, mother Jenny Lefevere)

son Alexander (1961, mother Ilse Monsanto)

daughter Anna-Sunya (1973, mother Barbara Mohr)

son Arthur (1978, mother Barbara Mohr)

Through Barbara Mohr he was the father of two stepdaughters, born in her previous marriage to provo activist Bart Huges.

Work