World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 157 - Dixie Solleveld

World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 157 – Dixie Solleveld
Dixie Solleveld’s house in Buitenveldert, in which she lives with her husband Pim Maas, is full of art. Especially paintings, but also sculptures, such as a chubby dancer from Niki de Saint Phalle.
On the left in the living room is an elongated painting of three meters by eighty centimeters. In a long car with three pairs of wheels you see an intertwined love couple. Both faces become almost one. It is a work by Alex Sadkowsky, who was friends with the Amsterdam photographer Cor Jaring. The painting first hung at the Jarings home, but after the death of Cor, four years ago, Dixie took over the painting. She still has a lot of contact with the widow.

Heads
Dixie found out, when she looked closely at the painting, that one of the bare feet was wrong. “I was wondering, maybe there is someone else beneath? But it can also be a joke by Sadkowski.” Other paintings include Tamara de Lempicka, Kees van Dongen, Jan Cremer, Jan Sierhuis, Peter Diem, Eugène Brands, Corneille, Fabrice, Anton Martineau and Sam Middleton.
And there is photo work, including a collage in black and white of many famous Amsterdammers, including Rinus Michels, Jan Wolkers, Vera de Vries, Wim Kok, Paul de Lussanet, Rudi Fuchs, Jan Cremer, Freddy Heineken, Sylvia Willink and Pasquale, the hairdresser, who had his business in the heart of the city. “People make a bet of who knows most. I have often exhibited at Pasquale. “
The collage came about when she started with ‘misprints’. “I cut out the heads and then paste them from large (down) to small (top).” Pim: “It is becoming more and more a ‘in Memoriam card’, most of them in this image have died.” A little later I also see a version in color. There are even more famous Amsterdammers, especially artists.

Paintings
Dixie has been photographing for many years, but since a few years she is painting. She does that in the back of the bedroom or in the kitchen. In the bedroom there is a painting on the easel. I see walls of a classic high interior, with lots of blue / light blue. It is a first set-up, a few more things have to be done about it. Behind it is a similar interior, also under construction, here dark blue and black.
On the floor a canvas that is ready, an old wall, which has become quite thick in a few places. “With sand and paprika powder.” Posters torn apart at the bottom of the painting, including a performance of Händel’s Messiah and a poster of the West Side Story. The title of the work, also the theme of all her painting, is ‘Transience’. She has already exhibited with the paintings, in Café Eijlders at the Leidseplein and at the Gelderlandplein.

Polaroid camera
But as said, Dixie was a photographer for many years. She attended the Fotovakschool in The Hague and the Sint Joost Academy in Breda. With one of her Breda teachers, Louis van Beurden, she came into service in his studio on Victorieplein in Amsterdam after graduating. “Van Beurden made many portraits. He taught me all the tricks of the darkroom. Retouching, editing the negatives with linseed oil and using very soft pencil to remove the wrinkles. Solarization with light on / off. Printing on all kinds of gradations of paper. We did a lot of tricks. When photographing portraits he sometimes put vaseline in front of the lens, so you did not see the wrinkles. “

She was the first to go into town with a polaroid camera. “I had heard from Wim Wagenaar that photos were taken in Cannes with a new type of camera, a camera that immediately produced a print. My curiosity was aroused. After a short while I got one in my hands, from Polaroid! I immediately went to work. To fancy restaurants, such as restaurant Fagel, to the Blue Note, the nightclub. The photos came in every newspaper. At half past four at night you could often find me in the Leidsestraat. Something bad has never happened. “

There were not that many photographers back then. The profession was also not seen as art. Last she worked for Ed Suister and Jaap Teding van Berkhout. They made fashion portraits and advertised. Then she went to work for herself, together with Pim. She made photos for the Vernissage and Art Alert magazines. “I took photos of openings in galleries. I also often visited De Kring and Arti et Amicitiae, many of the visitors: painters, sculptors, artists, writers, I knew.” Occasionally she exchanged a photo with works by the artists. In this way she got work made by, among others, Jan Cremer, Jan Sierhuis, Simon Vinkenoog and Frank Lodeizen.

Awards
She also won awards. For instance for a picture of Queen Beatrix. With one of the organizers of an art event in De Nieuwe Kerk, Beatrix stands near a classical cast body, without head, without arms and with a broken genitals. Beatrix looks at it carefully. “It was a work by José Vermeersch, a contribution from Galerie D ‘Eendt to the exhibition. Beatrix was interviewed near that sculpture. The two eyes of the magazine she has with her – with the title Voorbeeld (Example) – also look in the direction of the sculpture. I went to De Telegraaf with Nico Koster. A unique photo right? But because Prince Claus was in a the hospital for the first time, they did not want to place him. Later that did happen. “
Twice she has exhibited with her photographs in the Jan van der Togt Museum in Amstelveen and in addition at Galerie Witteveen. Portraits of well-known Amsterdammers. Few made in the studio, a lot during openings, events and parties. She shows me some examples on the computer. I see Cees Nooteboom, Sylvia Willink, Cor Jaring, Robert Jasper Grootveld, Theo Kley (Ruigoord), Fabrice, Peter Pappot (Kunsthandel Amsterdam), Herman Brood, Joop Braakhekke, the organ grinders, Jan Cremer, Frank Govers, Sam Middleton, Johnny the Selfkicker, Herman Krikhaar, Fabiola, the living artwork, Max Heijmans, Gerti Bierenbroodspot, Shinkichi Tajiri, Bernard Buffet, Cor Jaring and Ed van Thijn, embracing each other, Gonny van Oudenallen, Ed Wingen, Mimi Kok, Harry Slinger, the singer of Drukwerk, Josien van Dalsum, Ma Flodder (Nelly Frijda) and Bert Broodje, etc., etc ..

And also …..
There is more: Niels Hamel, Yoka Beretty, Elise den Bieman de Haas, Rabbi Soetendorp, Jan Sierhuis, Viola Holt, Bert Schierbeek, Rachid (painter), Geert Jan Jansen, the famous forger, Pasquale, Hans Boskamp, Maartje Pronk, Karel Eijkman, Jan Jansen (of the shoes), Henk van der Meijden, Richard Pruis, Allard Tetteroo (glass art), Bernard Heesen (glass art), Henri van der Zee (Financieele Dagblad), Ella Arps & Molly Ackerman, two brides of Heyboer, Dixie herself, Conny Stuart, Willebrord Frequin, Sofie van Kleef, Cor van Zadelhoff with a Bijenkorf cap on his head, George van Herwaarde, Erwin Olaf, Pim and Herman Brood together, Carla Boogaards, Jerome Reehuis, Eugène Brands with an art collector, Simon Vinkenoog and Bert Schierbeek, Jan Cremer crying on his fiftieth birthday because of a gypsy song, Rob Scholten, Yvan Theys.
And we continue: Tajiri with his wife, Alex Sadkowsky with his wife, Aat Veldhoen with a silkscreen in his hand, Louise, the wife of Henk Schiffmacher, Jan Verschoor, director of the Jan van der Togt Museum, Ramses Shaffy & Pim, Johnny Lion , Eugene Brands & Reinier Lucassen, Wubbo Ockels, Gijs Donker, Hedy d’Ancona, Anton Martineau, Elly Booy, Hans van Maanen, Maarten Spanjer, Louis van Dijk, Eli Asser, Gisele van Waterschoot van der Gracht, Jeroen Henneman, Hans Wiegel , Ans Markus, Ivo Niehe, Arnon Grunberg, Jan Parijs, Beautiful Henkie, Dries Roelvink and Diana Kok. We can continue, but we won’t do that.

Gone with the wind
Nowadays, photography has changed completely. Dixie: “In the past you had a roll in your camera. You only took a picture if you were pretty sure that it would give a nice result. And you went to print it yourself. The dark room work is half of the photo. Nowadays, with digital photography, it goes like páng, páng, páng. Everyone is photographing nowadays. There is no honor to be gained. In the past it was much cozier. There were a lot of crazy people who turned things upside down. At De Kring you used to see painters and writers, now you only see art lovers. “
That is why she started painting. “Also for the emotional pleasure. In the old days, when I was photographing, I painted in a sense, with light, now I paint with paint. As a photographer I learned to watch. You see more intensely, you see how the light falls. That makes life more beautiful. “
We have one more question: How did Dixie come up with the name Dixie? Does that have something to do with dixieland music? Dixie: “In the war, my mother read the book ‘Gone with the wind’. There is a Dixie in it. She said to my father, “If the child becomes a daughter, it must be called Dixie.” However, that was not allowed in the war, therefore the official name became Benedicte. But she was always called Dixie, to this day. And dixieland music she likes, but she finds it a bit messy. She prefers the jazz music of Miles Davis and Chet Baker. “I’m still going to the Cotton Club.”

Emotion
Finally, does she have an appropriate conclusion? She has. “A work of art has to evoke emotion. You can do that by color, by making stripes. This also applies to abstract works. If a work in any way connects with something that is in the viewer, it has succeeded. “
Images: 1) painting Dixie ‘Alexandra’, 2) collage Amsterdam zw / w, 1992, 3) painting Dixie ‘Transience’, 4) painting Dixie ‘Lussanette’, 5) Corneille with model Justine, 6) painting Corneille ‘Justine’ (see picture Dixie, picture 5), 7) Cees Nooteboom, author, 8) Pim Maas and Dixie, 1993, 9) Corneille and Dixie, 10) Queen Beatrix with sculpture José Vermeersch, artist, Belgium

 

https://www.facebook.com/dixie.solleveld
http://www.amstelveenweb.com/fotodisp&fotodisp=1540
https://ifthenisnow.eu/nl/verhalen/de-wereld-van-de-amsterdamse-kunstenaar-36-dixie-solleveld