Hendrika (Riekje) Swart (1 August 1923 in
George Town, Penang
)
, short_description = Capital city of the Malaysian state of Penang
, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of George Town in Penang
, pushpin_map = Penang#Malaysia#Asia#Earth
, pushpin_maps ...
, Malaysia – 27 September 2008 in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
) was a Dutch gallery owner of
Gallery Swart in Amsterdam from 1964 until 2000. She was awarded the
Benno Premsela Prize The Benno Premsela Prize is a former Dutch design prize, awarded every two years from 2000 to 2012 by the Mondriaan Fonds to a person who has played a stimulating role in the field of visual arts, design or architecture. The prize is named after de ...
in 2002 for her contribution to the development of
visual arts
The visual arts are Art#Forms, genres, media, and styles, art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as ...
in the Netherlands.
Biography
Youth, education and early career
Riekje Swart was born in
George Town, Penang
)
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, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of George Town in Penang
, pushpin_map = Penang#Malaysia#Asia#Earth
, pushpin_maps ...
, in Malaysia, as the daughter of Karel Swart (1891–1965),
sea captain
A sea captain, ship's captain, captain, master, or shipmaster, is a high-grade licensed mariner who holds ultimate command and responsibility of a merchant vessel.Aragon and Messner, 2001, p.3. The captain is responsible for the safe and efficie ...
at the
Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij
Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (Dutch for Royal Packet Navigation Company), better known as KPM, was a Dutch shipping company (1888–1966) in the Netherlands East Indies, now Indonesia. It was the dominant inter-island shipping line in In ...
and Anna Barbara Drabbe (1891–1986), a
nurse
Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...
in those days. After moving around with her family they settled in 1934, where she attended the
gymnasium.
[Pauline Micheels,]
Swart, Hendrika
, in: ''Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland'', 09/01/2018.
After the
German bombing of Rotterdam
Rotterdam was subjected to heavy aerial bombardment by the ''Luftwaffe'' during the German invasion of the Netherlands in World War II. The objective was to support the German troops fighting in the city, break Dutch resistance and force the D ...
the family moved to
Laren, North Holland
Laren () is a town and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the Gooi region, it is the oldest town in the area. Together with its neighbor Blaricum, Laren is one of the most affluent towns in the Netherlands.
...
, where she finished high school. After the war she studied law at the University of Amsterdam, receiving her bachelor's degree but failing for her master's degree.
In the 1950s Swart was head of staff at a bank for years. During her studies she had read literature a lot and had visited theater. The 1949
COBRA exhibition triggered her interest in contemporary art and the protest movement of the artists, and by the end of the 1950s she turned her career around.
Gallery Swart
Early 1960s Swart started as assistant in one of the few galleries in Amsterdam. From her savings in 1964 she started her own gallery. Inspired by
Willem Sandberg
Jonkheer Willem Jacob Henri Berend Sandberg (24 October 1897 – 9 April 1984) known as Willem Sandberg was a Dutch typographer, museum curator, and member of the Dutch resistance during World War II.
Early life and career
Sandberg was born i ...
she wanted art and artists to be contemporary and groundbreaking.
Over the years Swart promoted multiple new art movements. She started in the late 1960s with the work of abstract-geometrical Dutch artists, such as
Ad Dekkers and
Peter Struycken
Peter Struycken (born 5 January 1939 in The Hague) is a Dutch artist, and the brother of actor Carel Struycken. He won the 2012 Heineken Prize for Arts from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of ...
, supplemented with
conceptual art
Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called inst ...
ists such as
Ger van Elk
Ger van Elk (9 March 1941 – 17 August 2014) was a Dutch artist who created sculptures, painted photographs, installations and film. His work has been described as being both conceptual art and arte povera. Between 1959 and 1988 he lived and wo ...
en
Jan Dibbets
Jan Dibbets (born 9 May 1941, in Weert) is an Amsterdam-based Dutch conceptual artist. His work is influenced by mathematics and works mainly with photography.
Life and career
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he started as an art teacher at ...
and foreign colleagues.
In 1970 she promoted this type of art as systemic constructivism and
computer art
Computer art is any art in which computers play a role in production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, video game, website, algorithm, performance or gallery installation. Many tr ...
.
In the 1970s she promoted the young
Figuration Libre Figuration Libre ("Free Figuration") is a French art movement which began in the 1980s. It is the French equivalent of Bad Painting and Neo-expressionism in America and Europe, Junge Wilde in Germany and Transvanguardia in Italy. Artists in the m ...
artists, which, however, due to their big success, became too commercial for her soon after. In the 1980s and 1990s again she adopted new groups of artists, and promoted their work for some time. Suffering from bad health, she closed the gallery in the 2000. For her lasting contribution to the visual arts she was awarded the
Benno Premsela Prize The Benno Premsela Prize is a former Dutch design prize, awarded every two years from 2000 to 2012 by the Mondriaan Fonds to a person who has played a stimulating role in the field of visual arts, design or architecture. The prize is named after de ...
in 2002.
Reception
In an obituary in the ''
de Volkskrant
''de Volkskrant'' (; ''The People's Paper'') is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000.
Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium-sized ...
'' three days after her death in 2008, Riekje Swart was remembered as "the queen mother of the Dutch gallery world, the mentor of collectors, the tireless fan of art that leads the way."
[Marina de Vries. "Riekje Swart: Onvermoeibare fan van avant-gardekunst," ''de Volkskrant,'' 30 september 2008.]
References
External links
De klare taal van Bob Bonies, Ad Dekkers en galeriehoudster Riekje Swartat michielmorel.nl, 2012.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swart, Riekje
1923 births
2008 deaths
Dutch art dealers
Art collectors from Amsterdam