Ans (Anna Maria) Wortel (18 October 1929, in

Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. Alkmaar is well known fo ...

, Netherlands4 December 1996, in

Hilvarenbeek Hilvarenbeek () is a municipality and a town in the south of the Netherlands, along the border with Belgium. The biggest tourist attraction is called Beekse Bergen, consisting of a safari park, amusement park/playground, holiday bungalow park, an ...

, Netherlands) was a Dutch painter, poet and writer. She made gouaches and oil paintings, aquarelles, drawings, collages,

lithographs Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

, etchings, sculptures and glass sculptures. She was an

autodidact Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning, self-study and self-teaching) is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions). Overview Autodi ...

and won the first prize at the biennale of Paris in 1963. She was one of the leading female artists of postwar Dutch modern art. There are some 50 books with contributions from or about Wortel.

Painting style

Wortel's work is strongly autobiographical. Her experiences as a girl, woman, mother and as an artist were the main source of her inspiration. Common themes are human emotions, love, relationships, mother/child relations and social criticism. Until the late 1950s there was a search for a personal style. Artwork from that time varies and shows characteristics of different artists, such as

Katsushika Hokusai , known mononymously as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. His woodblock print series '' Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'' includes the iconic print ''The Great Wave off Kanagawa''. Ho ...

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Wifredo Lam Wifredo Óscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (; December 8, 1902 – September 11, 1982), better known as Wifredo Lam, was a Cuban artist who sought to portray and revive the enduring Afro-Cubans, Afro-Cuban spirit and culture. Inspired by ...

and

Karel Appel Christiaan Karel Appel (; 25 April 1921 – 3 May 2006) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-gard ...

. In the late 1950s her artistic style eventually flows into her very own style which is best described as abstract figurative art. It often consists of naked woman, man or child figures, sometimes recognizable, but always deformed. These human figures are together, search each other, embrace each other or repel each other. The figures are in unspecified spaces. The moon, the sun and the contours of the earth are often present in her work. Often her work is accompanied by handwritten poetical lines.

Selected exhibitions

Wortel had numerous exhibitions in the Netherlands and abroad, amongst others: * 1960 De Posthoorn,

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, Netherlands. * 1962 International Aquarel Exhibition, city at Bodensee in Friedrichshafen, Germany. * 1963

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

, Netherlands. Museum van Bommel van Dam,

Venlo Venlo () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany. It is situated in the province of Limburg (Netherlands), ...

, Netherlands. * 1964

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...

, Netherlands. Centre Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil.

Stedelijk Museum het Prinsenhof Het Prinsenhof ("The Court of the Prince") is a museum in the city of Delft in the Netherlands. Formerly the monastery of St Agatha, the building changed purpose over time. The whole building came into the possession of Delft City Council by 1925 ...

, Delft, Netherlands. * 1965

, Netherlands. * 1966 Rotterdam Artcircle. Exposition Plasmolen in Mook, Netherlands. * 1967

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, Washington DC, United States. * 1968 Salon Européen de Femme, Nancy, France. Salon Artistes Feminine, Paris, France.

, Netherlands. Museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo, Netherlands. * 1969 Curaçao Museum, Willemstad, Curaçao.

, Netherlands. Museum Waterland, Purmerend, Netherlands. Das Märkisches Museum der Stadt Witten - Duisburger Szession, Duisburg, Germany. Museum Fodor, Amsterdam, Netherlands. * 1970 De Vaart, Hilversum, Netherlands. * 1971 Galery In-Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Hengelo Hengelo (; Tweants dialect, Tweants: ) is a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, in the Twente region, in the province of Overijssel. It is part of a larger urban area that also includes Enschede, Borne, Overijssel, Borne, Almelo and Ol ...

Arthall, Hengelo, Netherlands.

, Netherlands. * 1972 Dwór Artusa (Artus Court), Gdańsk, Poland. * 1973 Art and Glass - Glass industry Van Tetterode, Amsterdam.

, Netherlands. * 1974 Museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo. De Latemse Galerie, Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium. Museum Oud Hospitaal, Aalst, Belgium. * 1975 Olympia International Art Centre, Kingston, Jamaica. * 1976

Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar is a city museum located in the center of Alkmaar on the Canadaplein (Canada Square). The museum is devoted to presenting and preserving the cultural history of Alkmaar and the surrounding region. History In 1873 the museu ...

, Netherlands. * 1977

, Netherlands. Exposition "year of the child" for

Unicef UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

, Turnhout, Belgium. * 1980 Tempel gallery, Willemstad, Curaçao. * 1986 Stedelijk Museum Woerden, Netherlands. * 1988 Café In the cradle, New York, United States. * 1989 Galery De Lelie, Antwerp, Belgium. * 1994 Museum De Koperen Knop, Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Netherlands. Exposition Heuf, Aruba. Van Reekum Museum, Apeloorn, Netherlands. * 2001 Museum Beeldentuin Nic Jonk, Grootschermer, Netherlands. * 2013 Museum Jan van der Togt, Amstelveen, Netherlands. * 2018 Museum Kranenburgh, Bergen NH, Netherlands. * 2023 Museum Beeldentuin Nic Jonk, Grootschermer, Netherlands. There were also expositions and contributions of Wortel at various events, such as (selection): * 1969 Design of costumes and stage set for "Laat dat" (in English "Drop it"), performed by the

Scapino Ballet {{Use dmy dates, date=January 2024 Scapino or Scapin is a Zanni character from the commedia dell'arte. His name is related to the Italian word ''scappare'' ('to escape') and his name translates to 'little escape artist', in reference to his tend ...

in the City Theatre in Amsterdam, Netherlands. * 1970 Simca show Alkmaar, Alkmaar, Netherlands. * 1975 International Women's Year, First Women's International Art Exhibit. (Wortel represented the Netherlands) * 1976 Artfestival 1976 Belgium/Netherlands. * 1977 Institut Néerlandais, 20e année (20 years jubilee), Paris, France. * 1983 The national Bookfestival, Amsterdam, Netherlands. * 1991 Cultural festival Altea, Spain * 1993 Gallery TNO, Netherlands. (Wortel made also a big 3x8 metres glass artwork for the TNO building). * 1993 National Womensday at the town hall of Loon op Zand, Netherlands. * 1994 National Womensday at the

Delft University of Technology The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

, Netherlands.

Selected works

She wrote several Dutch collections of poetry in which her visual art and her poetry come together. * Poetry book, untitled (1959, handmade limited edition)Ans Wortel, B. Hiltermann en M. de Geus, Warmenhuizen, ) * "Preken en prenten", in English: "Preaches and prints" (1969, Tor, ) * "Voor ons de reizende vlezen rots...", in English: "To us the traveling rock made of flesh..." (1970, De Bezige Bij, ) * "Voor die ziet met mijn soort ogen, door wiens ogen ik kan zien", in English: "For who sees with my kind of eye’s, by whose eye’s I'll see" (1970, handmade limited edition) * "Wat ik vond en verloor", in English: "What I've found and lost" (1972, Tor, ) * "Lessen aan die ik liefheb", in English: "Lessons to those I love" (1973, Tor, ) * "Gedichten 1959-1963", in English: "Poems 1959-1963" (1989, Ans Wortel, De Fontijn, ) In 1980, she started her autobiography which was finalized in 1986 (5 volumes in Dutch). * "Een mens van onze soort", in English: "One of our kind" (1982, De Fontijn, ) * "In de bloei van 't leven, noemen ze dat", in English: "In the prime of life, they call it" (1983, De Fontijn, ) * "Noem mij maar Jon", in English: "Just call me Jon" (1983, De Fontijn, ) * "Onderweg in Amsterdam", in English: "On the road in Amsterdam" (1984, De Fontijn, ) * "Nannetje...", in English: "Nannetje..." (1986, De Fontijn, )

References

External links

* (NL
Artwork overview of Ans Wortel 1940 - 1996
* (NL
Ans Wortel website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wortel, Ans 1929 births 1996 deaths 20th-century Dutch painters 20th-century Dutch poets 20th-century Dutch sculptors 20th-century Dutch women writers Dutch women poets Dutch women writers Dutch glass artists Women glass artists Dutch abstract painters Dutch abstract sculptors People from Alkmaar 20th-century Dutch women sculptors 20th-century Dutch lithographers Women lithographers Dutch collage artists Women collage artists