World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 218 - Hedwig van der Heiden

World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 218 – Hedwig van der Heiden
Hedwig van der Heiden makes paintings, drawings and photos. Visiting her home I see on the left a portrait of a man with blue hair in a black suit with a purple side and a white shirt in an ocher background. It is her deceased friend, a Zen teacher.
When Hedwig was nine years old, she went with her father to a Picasso exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. “That was fun. I then decided that I would also become a painter. My father thought it was great that I chose the artistic path. He also advised me to get a teacher certificate. I did that too, MO-A and MO-B.

Striking portraits
Hedwig van der Heiden’s portraits were striking. You can see that in a video in which the subjects are standing next to their painting. It is an intensive job, sometimes it takes six weeks. She is currently working on a portrait of the historian, presenter, writer and former professor Maarten van Rossem. “I have already portrayed his brother, Vincent van Rossem, it succeeded well. He thought so too. He stands on it with a cigarette in his hand. I hope their sister will also participate. “

In the room I see portraits on the floor of Lodewijk Asscher (with green hues in his face), Hannah Arendt, Paul Scheffer and Remco Campert. “Some like it, those other colors in their face, others don’t. I had painted a gallery owner in Bad Bentheim and his wife with special colors, but they preferred a ‘natural complexion’. I did that then. Remco Campert liked it, the other colors in his face.”

And photos and drawings
Hedwig visits the people to be portrayed, takes a number of photos and then goes to work with it. She also takes many other photos. “I photograph everything I see. I often do it when I go to my studio, yesterday I photographed a field with crocuses, dark pink crocuses. I took pictures of a protest march from the top floor of Arti. I have many photos of meetings and (art) openings. When I send someone an email, I also add a photo. ”
She also makes drawings. She has 4000 drawings. She doesn’t sell them. She searches for her drawings in the cupboard and shows me two drawing books. I see planes and shades made with pencil through which sometimes yellow, sometimes blue lines run through. Abstract work. The patterns of her drawings appear in some paintings, but now in color, with many brown and yellow hues and with dots in them.

Mexico
Hedwig van der Heiden has been an artist since 1974. She had attended the Rietveld Academy (from ’68 to ’71) and then the Royal Academy in The Hague (’71 –’73). In 1976 she left for Mexico with her friend and child. She could go there working in an Art Residency. “The Mexican ambassador had first visited my home to explain it all. The first half year there was a strike in Mexico City. That is why we went to a small village outside the city. In the spring, in March, the strike ended and I started my Artist-in-Residence project. It took nine months. I painted and at the Academy I learned screen printing. A Swiss teacher thought my work was more European than Mexican. “

Then they went traveling. Via Guatemala to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to Bolivia. “People lived in Bolivia that I knew from Delft. Unexpectedly I turned out to be expecting my second child. In the meantime my first child attended the local kindergarten and spoke Spanish well. When we went back the child was 3 years old. My second child, also a son, was born in the Netherlands. I called him Pabe because we met a very nice man in Mexico and he was called Pave. In Mexico they pronounce that as Pabe. ”

Back in Delft she started making work that she sold well. She also submitted work for the BKR scheme, the Visual Artists Regulation. “I recently got all of that back. I try to find a good place for it at institutions. For example a hospital. I recently visited the Boven-IJ hospital in Amsterdam-Noord. All corridors were empty. When I suggested that there could be some art, I got the reaction that people were quite interested. In any case, I have started the thought process about it. I also have contact with a large law firm in Beethovenstraat that was interested. The work can be sorted out with me and taken for free. “

Being free
She says she has no theme in her paintwork. “If I had to mention a theme, it is that I want to work freely.” Asked for an explanation: “Life is full of rules. This way I can also be free once. “
Hedwig is originally from Amersfoort. Her father had a mink farm and was also an inventor. He invented improvements in the installations of the farm for which he received a patent. He also invented an automatic car belt, a belt that automatically wraps around a person and then clicks. “He was on TV with it in 1990. He was a special father, very sweet.”

Lessons
She had a friend who went to study in Delft. She moved in with him there. “He had a nice apartment there. He became a project developer and was Entrepreneur of the Year in Delft in 1993. We lived in that apartment for three years.” Based on her teaching certificates MO-A and MO-B, she started teaching. “In Rotterdam I taught at an HBS (High School). But the children did not want to listen at all. After a while I left again. On the advice of a friend, I then started teaching adults in Vlaardingen. That went very well. Later I taught in a community center on Colijnstraat in Amsterdam.” All the while she continued to paint and draw.
Through her sister Cecile she came in contact with Ger van Elk, pioneer of conceptual art. He asked her if she could portray his girlfriend’s son. She made two, he bought both of them and Hedwig saw them again when she visited him in a retirement home where he was in bed. They hung on the wall there. Van Elk died in 2014.

Your own boss
Hedwig has no key work. “I just keep on working. People stop working when they turn 65. That is not the case with me, you have to continue in the art profession every day. After all, you are your own boss. “
Images: 1) Bob Dylan, 2) ZT 70 x 60 2016, 3) ZT 80 x 83 2015, 4) Diderot, 5) ZT 65 x 60 2017, 6) 72 x 60 cm 2016, 7) ZT 115 x 75 cm 2014, 8) Couple, 9) Drawing A4 2017, 10) Hedwig van der Heiden 2019

 

http://www.hedwigvanderheiden.nl/
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https://ifthenisnow.eu/nl/verhalen/de-wereld-van-de-amsterdamse-kunstenaar-56-hedwig-van-der-heiden