World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 496 - Bert Hoekstra

World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 496 – Bert Hoekstra

On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, Breed Art Studios in Amsterdam organized the exhibition ‘Breed Art Studios 10’. There I saw work by Florence Husen, Kitty Doomernik and Bert Hoekstra. Kitty Doomernik and Bert Hoekstra were both artists-in-residence in Natthagen, Norway in 2023.

It was a productive time for both artists. Bert Hoekstra, who I visit in the company of Kitty Doomernik in his studio in the Netherlands: “The Natthagen residence consists of a few old wooden houses, a garage with a studio attached to it, at the top of a field on a hill, surrounded by forest. A path has been constructed through the forest, halfway around the open field, where artists are invited to realize projects, the art path. The forest is very different from the Netherlands. Few low shrubs, but many types of moss. Some types seem to light up in the shadow. A wonderful place! Drawing, carving and printing all day long, and working with branches and wire. And what is so nice, no one bothers you there when you are working somewhere.” He was there together with his beloved dog Maya.

Versatile

Bert Hoekstra is a versatile artist. His studio is located diagonally behind his house. Behind the studio lies the stream valley of Renkum (Renkums Beekdal). On the work table he has been working on a wood engraving, I see. A little further on are a proof printing press and also a platen press. There are two large drawer cabinets, one with lead letters to set and print texts and another with his drawings and graphic work.

On a shelf I see a number of portraits in cardboard, wood and bronze. They appear to be portraits of former clients. Bert worked for a long time as a creative therapist in the care of people with intellectual disabilities. He supervised a studio where, among other things, drawing and painting took place. “I made many portraits of clients during that time. Beautiful people, fun to draw. And I noticed that the portraits always had a great added value for them.”

I also see wire sculptures, including a metal flower and a man. Bert hangs them together for a moment, because they belong together. The flower, in green, yellow and red, above and the man slightly below. The man is grabbed by the throat by the flower. The work is part of the project Art meets Science, in which scientists and artists enter into a dialogue and see how they can fertilize each other with ideas. This part of the sculpture – the other part is a man looking at a flower that he has pulled out of the ground, roots and all – is about the idea: What if nature were to claim its rights and no longer let itself be walked over by humans? It will soon be exhibited in the exhibition Art meets Science at the WUR (University) Wageningen.

Drawing

Bert: “I do a variety of things. The basis of most of my work is drawing. That doesn’t apply to the spatial work, the sculptures. But it does apply to the wire work, which I approach more as a drawing than as a sculpture. With the two dimensions of the drawing, a third dimension of space is added.”

He started after the academy with spatial work in stone and marble, but due to a progressive lung disease he could no longer do this work at some point, because it had become too heavy. Behind me I see a number of sculptures in bronze, wood and marble, including portraits of a friend and his mother – we are now in the living room. “Because sculpting became too heavy, I switched to graphic work. In my work studio at the care institution ‘s Heerenloo in Wekerom I had had a paper factory for years. That’s how I came into contact with Niek Smaal, who had a printing house with printing presses and lead and wooden letters, and was very involved in all aspects of making books. We became friends and started working together.”

The graphic work in the form of woodcuts was born there. “If I had to define myself it would be as a graphic artist. But it is not exclusively what I do.”

Woodcuts

He was already familiar with wood; when he was 11, he was already carving hooks and whistles in the orchard of a friend’s parents. At 13, he carved his first spoon. “A great-uncle carved horse heads in wood. Fantastic! I was right on top of it.” The first real woodcut, as a printing form, only came as a result of the contact with Niek Smaal and working in his printing house.

He shows that first woodcut, in which he himself has set a text for New Year’s Eve with lead letters. On the table I see an end-of-year message with a text on the left and a woodcut image of Galloway cattle on the right. It is an important work, even a key work. Because since then (since 2004) he has made an ‘end-of-year print’ with text and a woodcut for friends and acquaintances every year.

His theme is the world around him and nature, he says. “Drawing is about the handwriting of drawing. I always want to see how other artists draw, because handwriting is so basic. When I make wire drawings, the handwriting is strangely enough not essentially different than when I draw with pencil. Apparently it has to do with a (motoric) way of thinking.”

Two years ago, he and two poets from Wageningen created a series of ‘wandering texts’, short texts that were printed on cards with a platen press and distributed in an edition of 40 copies per text. The idea of ​​the wandering texts was literally that they would wander; people could take them for free, but with the request to eventually pass them on again, or simply leave them somewhere. There were 27 different texts, sometimes moving, sometimes funny. Every now and then there is a reaction to them. “Every now and then it is wonderful to be mainly occupied with language and with the composition and printing of texts.”

He also makes a lot of small wooden sculptures. He slides open a drawer and there I see dozens of wooden shapes, made of different types of wood. “I always want to have something in my hands. I was always playing with pens or pencils, or whatever was available. One day I thought ‘Let me make something nice to play with’. That’s how all these small wooden, and sometimes stone or bronze, sculptures came into being. Things don’t necessarily have to be big. Touch is also a way to experience art. Some people even experience them as erotic.”

Japan

Bert Hoekstra attended the Academy for Visual Arts in Amersfoort and a few years later the HBO course in creative therapy at the Hogeschool van Nijmegen. After graduating, he started working as a creative therapist in a care institution in ‘s Heerenloo in Wekerom in 1987, and later in Bennekom. He regularly organised exhibitions of his clients’ work. “A lot was possible in those days. You could experiment endlessly.” In his spare time he went to Japan where he attended a workshop on Japanese paper making in 2009. There he also organised an exhibition of visual work by Japanese and Dutch artists with and without intellectual disabilities. “A wonderful exhibition, April 2009 in Osaka. It was very important for the clients to have an equal platform together with non-disabled artists.”

Since 2012 he has been a member of the Platform Beroepskunstenaars (professional artists) Wageningen. “That has given me a lot in terms of contacts, talking to each other and a lot of cooperation. That has been a very good decision.”

His dog Maya unfortunately passed away recently, but I still see portraits of her in the living room, and a very beautiful woodcut in red in the kitchen.

Finally, what is his philosophy?

Bert Hoekstra: “I have an urge to make things. As far as I can remember, I have always had that. I think you are born with it.” He sometimes works on a project for a very long time, he adds. The “wandering texts” project took months. But he also responds to impulses. “Then I think ‘I want to work with iron today, or with wood, for example’. I really go after my need (at that moment). It is a kind of thinking that you get sucked into and from which you can no longer escape. It comes naturally.”

the article:

https://www.berthoekstra.nl/
https://breedartstudios.net/amsterdam-art-exhibitions-2024/
https://natthagen.no/air-kunstnerresidens/
https://inzaken.eu/2024/11/04/bert-hoekstra-veelzijdig-kunstenaar-uit-de-veluwezoom/