Marty Bax

Martine Theodora Bax (born 1956) is a Dutch-Canadian art historian and art critic in modern art. Her specializations are the work of Piet Mondrian, the relationship between art and Western Esotericism, especially Modern Theosophy and Anthroposophy, and Nazi plunder of books during the Second World War.

Biography

Bax was born on 10 November 1956 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Her parents were both co-founders of and journalists for the newspapers Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and Algemeen Dagblad in Rotterdam Netherlands). In Canada her father Jack was a radio reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. After remigration to the Netherlands he became Chief of Public Relations of the City and Port of Rotterdam. He was the first in the Netherlands to implement a public information center for inhabitants, in which city developments were openly discussed. In the 1960s he was one of the first who envisioned local radio and television as public information channels.
Bax is the sister of the human rights activist Robert van Voren and of Jacky Bax, programme manager and deputy director at NRPO SIA / Taskforce for Applied Research, formerly Programme Manager Innovation Universities at Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

Profession

Bax studied art history at the . Her scholarly approach to art is interdisciplinary, combining art history and art analysis with (socioeconomic) history, sociology, philosophy, history of religion and genealogy. She works as an independent (co-)curator of and scholarly adviser to many international institutions on modern art from 1850. She has published many books and essays and wrote entries on Dutch architects for the Oxford Art Online. She has been editor of the university art historical magazine ''Kunstlicht'' and founder of its foundation, and editor-in-chief of the scholarly magazine ''Jong Holland''. As an art critic for Het Financieele Dagblad she has written approximately 500 articles on art, architecture, design, institutional and private collecting, and the art market. She organized various conferences, e.g. on Nazi plunder and cultural heritage.

Mondrian

''Piet Mondrian. The Amsterdam years 1892–1912'' (1994) contains the first extensive analysis of the extensive social and artistic network of Piet Mondrian, based on genealogy and research in primary archival sources. In 1996 she was appointed editor of Volume I of the ''Catalogue Raisonné'' of Mondrian's work. The book ''Mondrian Complete'' received the Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award in 2002. Ever since her work is cited extensively, she publishes and lectures regularly on aspects of Mondrian's life and art and serves as an authentication expert of his work.

Western Esotericism

Bax started her research into art and Western Esotericism after the exhibition ''The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1985'' (1986–1987), of which Bax was assistant-curator at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in The Hague. In 1991 she published ''Bauhaus Lecture Notes 1930–1933'', in which she describes the continuing influence of Western Esotericism on the theory and practice of the Bauhaus, right until its closing in 1933. The exhibition ''Okkultismus und Avantgarde'' (1995), of which Bax was member of the scholarly board and organizer of the Dutch section, was the first exhibition to focus exclusively on the influence of Western Esotericism on European art. In 1996 she joined the study group ARIES, founded by Wouter Hanegraaff and precursor of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism. As a member of ESSWE she contributes to international conferences, lectures and scholarly discussion groups. In 2001 she was co-founder of the Stichting ter bevordering van wetenschappelijk Onderzoek naar de geschiedenis van de Vrijmetselarij en verwante stromingen in Nederland (OVN; Foundation for the advancement of academic research into the history of freemasonry and related currents in the Netherlands) to preserve archival and architectural heritage.

Bax' dissertation on Theosophy and art in The Netherlands is the first systematic and interdisciplinary analysis of the relationship between art and Modern Theosophy. It has set an empirical-methodological standard for any research in this complex field of art history. The book contains a prosopography of the members of the Dutch branch of the Theosophical Society, which gives insight into the social and religious structure of the Society. The exhibition ''Holy Inspiration. Religion and Spirituality on Modern Art'' (2008) was the first exhibition in the history of the strictly modernist Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam to focus on the religious, spiritual and Western Esoteric sources of inspiration of modern artists in the collection, based on the views of Jürgen Habermas. Parallel she contributed to held at the Centre Pompidou. In 2010 Bax made the full membership list of the Theosophical Society available online as a primary source for scholarly and family research.

In 2010 she became interested in the life of Grete Trakl, musical prodigy and sister of the Austrian poet Georg Trakl, because of her notes on lectures by Rudolf Steiner. Research resulted in the first comprehensive biography of Grete Trakl, published in 2014. This book contains several chapters on her brother's position within the tradition of Western Esotericism.

From 2013 Bax has published on the work of the Swedish artists Hilma af Klint and Anna Cassel. founders of the group ''De Fem'' (''The Five''). Sigrid Hedman, Mathilda Nilsson and Cornelia Cederberg (sister of Mathilda Nilsson) were the three other members of the group. Bax contributed to the 2013 exhibition and conference in Stockholm, but is critical of the myth created around Hilma af Klint. She focuses on Anna Cassel as the inspirational and creative source of De Fem, and on the broader historical and religious context of the group.

Nazi Plunder

From 2020 Bax has been contracted by the Claims Conference to research the plunder of books and archives in The Netherlands during the Second World War by the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce (ERR). Millions of books and archives were looted, displaced or destroyed, not only of Jews, the main focus of the plunder, but also of all Dutch religious, esoteric, humanitarian and socially or politically oriented organizations and groups deemed 'subversive' by the Nazis.

Selected bibliography

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* Anna Cassel & Hilma af Klint. Childhood, 1907. Vision of a new Swedish Christian Identity. Amsterdam. Baxbooks. .
* Anna Cassel & Hilma af Klint. The Stockholm 1913 exhibition. The consequences. Amsterdam. Baxbooks. .

References

External links

Bax Art Concepts & Services

Membership list Theosophical Society 1875–1942

European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE)

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, or ''Claims Conference''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bax, Marty
1956 births
Living people
20th-century Dutch writers
21st-century Dutch writers
Canadian emigrants to the Netherlands
Canadian people of Dutch descent
21st-century Dutch non-fiction writers
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam alumni
Writers from Montreal
20th-century Dutch non-fiction writers