Alida "Lies" Meijers-Cosijn (25 April 1931 – 23 February 2016,
Petten
Petten is a village in the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Schagen, and lies about 15 km northwest of Alkmaar, on the North Sea. The population is ca. 1900.
Petten's economy is based on agricu ...
) was a Dutch
ceramist
Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While ...
. Her work is described as "fairytale like and poetic, but also sometimes bizarre and realistic."
Life and work
Born in
Mojokerto
Mojokerto ( (''Måjåkěrtå'')) is a city in East Java Province of Indonesia. It is located 40 km southwest of Surabaya, the provincial capital, and constitutes one of the component units of the Surabaya metropolitan area (known as Gerbang ...
, Cosijn returned with her family to The Netherlands in 1946. After attending the a girls secondary school, she studied
ceramics
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...
at the Institute of Applied Art in Amsterdam under
Theo Dobbelman and Willem de Vries from 1951 to 1955.
[Cosijn, Lies](_blank)
at capriolus.nl, 2015
In 1956 she started her career as ceramist at the
De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles
The Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles N.V. (trading publicly as Royal Delft) is a Dutch manufacturer of Delftware, a type of earthenware, headquartered in Delft, the Netherlands. It is the only remaining factory out of 32 that were established in Delft ...
as assistant in the Experimental Division. In 1957 she married Herman Meijers (1923–2000), Professor of International Law at the University of Amsterdam, and she started her own studio at the Kloveniersburgwal in Amsterdam in 1963 but moved to
Petten
Petten is a village in the Netherlands, Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Schagen, and lies about 15 km northwest of Alkmaar, on the North Sea. The population is ca. 1900.
Petten's economy is based on agricu ...
, North Holland the next year. After the years 1969-1970 in Jamaica, Cosijn and Meijers returned to Petten. Cosijn made "stoneware clay by hand, then engraves the decor in sinter slips and bakes her work in an electric furnace to about 1160 degrees."
According to Breitbarth (2009) Cosijn always "deliberately pushed the boundaries, to explore them, to try and possibly to circumvent a ruse. In her work frontiers where crossed numerous times. For example between the two-dimensional character of the drawing and the three-dimensional data of the bowl. Or when drawing the ribs meet at a polygonal box and thus forced the corner store. Also, the creation of space is a game with the limitation: it can literally by making a hole in the wall of the bowl, but also by drawing a window, door or curtain and so as to suggest a see-through." In 1972 she was awarded the David Röell Award.
[H. Schaafsma. ''Aspecten van cultuurbeleid: een verzameling opstellen ter informatie en inspiratie.'' Samsom, 1974. p. 100]
Gallery
File:Vase with incised figurative decor of landscape with buildings, 1956-62.jpg, Vase with incised figurative decor of landscape with buildings, 1956-62
File:Candle Holder with decor of elongated humans and animals, 1957-62.jpg, Candle Holder with decor of elongated humans and animals, 1957-62
File:Autism pot 1959.jpg, Autism pot 1959
File:Love box, 1976.jpg, Love box, 1976
Selected publications
* Museum Boymans Van Beuningen., & Gemeentemuseum Arnhem. (1973). ''Catalogus van de tentoonstelling Lies Cosijn, keramiek 1956-1973, inbegrepen de potterie gemaakt op de Experimentele Afdeling van de Porceleyne Fles te Delft, in samenwerking met Jet Sielcken, Adriek Westenenk en Natasha Zaludova, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen Rotterdam, 13 oktober-26 november 1973: Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, 1 december 1973-13 januari 1974.'' Rotterdam.
* Lies Cosijn, Dorris Kuyken-Schneider. '' Compassion and Poetry: Ceramics of Lies Cosijn/Compassie en Poezie: Ceramiek van Lies Cosijn.'' 2002
See also
*
List of Dutch ceramists
This is a list of Dutch ceramists who were born and/or were primarily active in the Netherlands.
__NOTOC__
A
* Cris Agterberg (1883–1948)
* Aalmis (1674–1755)
* Karel Appel (1921–2006)
* Govert-Marinus Augustijn (1871–1963)
B ...
References
External links
Prestige Collection XXXI - Lies Cosijn, container from the Roma seriesWorks of Lies Cosijnat
Keramiekmuseum Princessehof.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cosijn, Lies
1931 births
2016 deaths
Dutch ceramists
Dutch women ceramists
Dutch sculptors
Dutch women sculptors
People from Mojokerto Regency
People from Schagen