Willem Hussem - Abstracte compositie, gesigneerd en gedateerd '56 - Sold

Willem Hussem (1900-1974) is an artist who has not shunned experimentation throughout his life. During his career he has undergone an interesting development, in which he is constantly looking for innovation. Willem Hussem grows up as the eldest son in a Rotterdam notary family. After the HBS, the troubled artist in the making does not want to continue his studies. Under pressure from his conservative father, Hussem starts rolling cigars for a year in a tobacco shop. This is not a success and the young Hussem returns to Rotterdam to take lessons at the Academy of Fine Arts. But Hussem does not feel artistically free there and decides to develop further in France. He settles in Les Angles in southern France. Willem Hussem initially paints landscapes in a realistic style that are related to Van Gogh's style, portraits and still lifes. In 1936 the painter returns to the Netherlands for good and settles in The Hague. He mainly paints stylized and somewhat abstracted 'mask-like' faces and still lifes. This shows his interest in foreign cultures and his appreciation for Picasso's work. During the war years, Hussem's work gradually becomes less figurative. Important here is his interest in calligraphy, the oriental art of beautiful writing. The spontaneous calligraphic brush drawings help Hussem to develop an abstract visual language. Simplicity and clarity Despite the different styles, one common thread can be discovered: Willem Hussem strives for simplicity and clarity. In 1960, Hussem is the Dutch representative at the twentieth Venice Biennale. In addition to being a visual artist, he is also a poet, and in 1961 he published his first collection of poems. Hussem's constant search for new forms, new realities crystallized in his expressive constructivist paintings in the 1960s. Although the works are abstract, reality is indeed an important source of inspiration for Hussem. "Everything I perceive makes me think," he once said. He creates his own new reality with geometric shapes such as circles, ovals and ellipses, and with rectangles and curved lines. Color and shape are inextricably linked. In the 1960s, Hussem went through a very successful and extremely productive period. The paintings from that time are characterized by the rhythm of the shapes and the proportions between the lines and the colours. The abstract works are a balanced whole. Towards the end of his life, his paintings become more and more abstract. Willem Hussem won the important Jacob Maris prize three times during his life. Three years after his death, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen is dedicating a major retrospective to his work.