Albert Waalkens (

Finsterwolde Finsterwolde () is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen, about 7 km northeast of the city of Winschoten. Finsterwolde was a separate municipality until 1990, when it was merged with Beerta into Reiderland. In 2010 Reiderland merged ...

, 8 June 1920 - there, 1 April 2007) was a Dutch

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

gallery owner An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells Work of art, works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and build ...

of Galery Waalkens and avant-garde art promoter.Galeriehouder Albert Waalkens overleden
" ''

De Telegraaf ''De Telegraaf'' (; ) is the largest Netherlands, Dutch daily morning newspaper. Haro Kraak,Gaat Paul Jansen de crisis bij De Telegraaf oplossen?, ''de Volkskrant'', 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015. Paul Jansen has been the editor-in-chief since ...

,'' 4 april 2007. (

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

)Albert Waalkens; man / Nederlands; galeriehouder
at rkd.nl.

Life and work

Waalkens started an art gallery in the

stable A stable is a building in which working animals are kept, especially horses or oxen. The building is usually divided into stalls, and may include storage for equipment and feed. Styles There are many different types of stables in use tod ...

of his farm in the 1960s, where experimental artists were offered a place to exhibit their works. Moreover, he offered the artists and their families shelter on his country estate. In those days, Finsterwolde became a magnet for young artists from the

Randstad The Randstad (; "Rim City" or "Edge City") is a roughly crescent- or Circular arc, arc-shaped conurbation in the Netherlands, that includes almost half the country's population. With a central-western location, it connects and comprises the Net ...

. In 1963 Waalkens organized an exhibition along the public road in the municipality under the title "Statues in Finsterwolde" with the sculpture of ten artists. This evolved into the 1967 exhibition along the public road of 200 sculptures by 63 artists, which stretched from the city of

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

to the east of the province of Groningen. In 1997 Waalkens organized his last notable exhibition, named the ''Koetekendagen'' (Cow-drawing-days), whereby thirty artists were presented drawing, painting or sculpturing cows. In 2000 Waalkens received the Benno Premsela Prize from the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts for his stimulating attitude towards artists. Earlier, in 1989, he had been awarded the Zilveren Anjer by Prince Bernhard because of his merits to the art. Albert Waalkens was the father of the former PvdA member of parliament Harm Evert Waalkens, who, like his father, is a farmer in Finsterwolde. Albert Waalkens died at the age of 86.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waalkens, Albert Dutch art dealers