Persona January, 30th 2025 by

World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 504 - willem van hest

willem van hest – 1

World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 504 – willem van hest
I came across willem van hest in the exhibition ‘Ode to the line’ (Ode aan de Lijn) in Art Centre Schiedam. His Ode to the line consisted of several drawings in colour (blue, orange, yellow) and one in black and white. He showed me an interesting booklet about the Oude Noorden of Rotterdam that he had made with poet Kees Plaisier and artists Mario van der Stelt and Flip Kolet.
A week or two later I find myself in willem van hest’s studio in Kralingen, surrounded by his work: colourful nudes of seductive ladies, large bodies in black and white, abstract works in blue and pink, and silkscreen and stencil prints of Rotterdam pearls.

willem van hest – 2

City drawings
willem van hest has created a large oeuvre that constantly shows innovation. In addition to making works, he is very active with all kinds of projects, has had a gallery for a while and is currently chairman of the artists’ association Karmijn.
In the meantime, four publications have appeared of the city drawings combined with poems of Rotterdam East, South, North and West. “We started in the old building of the Vrije Volk on the Slaak, the ‘Slaakgebouw’ or ‘Hotel the Slaak’ as we also called it. Kees Plaisier, who lives in my neighborhood, had told me that he would like to make poems for my drawings. We could then exhibit them in the Slaakgebouw.”
van hest thought it was a good idea and started the Colorful Rotterdam project. The opening took place in Hotel The Slaak in Rotterdam-Oost. The sequel took place in August 2023 in the Niffo Gallery of Zoë Daniela Cochia (Niffo means cousin) on the Pretorialaan in Zuid. He shows me a number of drawings of, among others, the Gemaal in the Afrikaanderwijk, the Feijenoord Stadium and the Essalam Mosque, the largest mosque in the Netherlands. The third place where work and poems were shown was at the GP House Oude Noorden (Doktershuis Oude Noorden) on the Bergweg.
The fourth booklet with city drawings and poems, number four of the Colorful Rotterdam project, was presented in early 2025 in Galerie Serruys in Laurens Antonius on the Nieuwe Binnenweg.

willem van hest – 3

At the Academy
willem van hests artistic career began at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam, his hometown. There he was taught portrait and model drawing, among other things. Gijs Voskuyl was the teacher of the latter subject. “I was raised old-fashioned Catholic. The Catholic faith was in the minority in Rotterdam and therefore focused inward. Until I was 15/16, the Catholic faith hindered me. I rebelled against it very much. When I came to the Academy I was a shy Catholic boy, impurity was a sin. And then suddenly those women come into the classroom and undress completely. I liked that.” He made many black and white nudes. He shows several of them. And then several paintings of seductive women in color, which also pass by. It was followed by drawings in colored pencil of bodies a la Michelangelo and Raphael that I saw in the Schiedam Art Center.
During the lessons he had many discussions with his teachers about art and society. He thought that art should delve more into society. In the second year he wanted more attention for social art, such as the work of Käthe Kollwitz and Gerd Arntz who wanted to give the worker insight into how society was structured with his graphics. There was one teacher in particular who found it annoying that he addressed all kinds of social issues. His fellow students concentrated mainly on their art. Willem switched to the Social Academy, Cultural Work department, and became a cultural worker in Capelle a/d IJssel for a short time. After a few years, however, he returned to art.

willem van hest – 4

Uniqueness as an artist
He felt that he had to have a clear uniqueness as an artist so that he would be recognized. “For twenty years I was the artist of the human body. After a while, portraits were added to that.” It increasingly felt like a straitjacket. He freed himself from that by starting to screen print and making paintings that looked a lot like the screen prints.
I see a self-portrait in blue and pink. “It became more and more abstract. Until the work was suddenly completely abstract. ‘What’s the next step?’ I thought. ‘It doesn’t mean anything anymore.’” He started to concentrate on writing and published his first Painters Diary (Schildersdagboek), published by publisher Phoenix and Den Oudsten.
Hans Walgenbach, former director of CBK, later Museum Rotterdam and currently working at Art & Books: “A selection from the diaries and letter fragments, which together with the reproduced artworks, provide an image of the life and work of a Rotterdam artist who is exceptionally involved in his craft and his environment. Only rarely do we get such an intimate look into the artist’s kitchen.”

willem van hest – 5

Silkscreens and stencil prints
At some point he had had enough of abstract and the women returned. In the meantime, the silkscreens turned out to be a success. The silkscreens with the Euromast and the Erasmus Bridge were real hits. He made an edition of a hundred. The silkscreen with the bridge De Hef was sold out. After a while he adjusted the edition a bit downwards.
Those screen prints were very laborious; he found a similar alternative: stencil printing. “With stencil printing, you can cut into a plastic sheet and then fill it in with acrylic paint.” He shows a few stencil sheets. “You can rinse them and reuse them endlessly. And you only have to make 5 copies per drawing. If more are needed, you print more.”

willem van hest – 6

Community art
He had started earning money with his art and that gave him the space to also get started with social involvement projects in schools and neighborhoods. In addition, he was active in Galerie De Brieder in Metrostation Oostplein from 1993. He did a lot together with Ron Blom, with whom he founded The Meeting Place (‘De ontmoeting).
At schools (including secondary schools) he did art projects together with Ron Blom. The children stamped objects in colour; this was enlarged and ended up on blind school walls, among other things. “We took the tulip, for example. This is a symbol for both originally Dutch and Islamic (Turkish) children.”

willem van hest – 7

Does willem have a key work?
He has a number of them, such as the first work of a body in black and white; the drawing of the bodies in colored pencil, especially the work about Nelson; the first abstract painting (while he originally wanted nothing to do with Mondrian); the drawings/paintings on the blind wall in the playgrounds of schools.

willem van hest – 8

The third phase
In recent years he has focused on philosophical questions, including from the Pand Paulus in Schiedam, the old church of François HaverSchmidt alias Piet Paaltjens. “The Paulus project and other spiritual projects brought me back to churches and I met church people. I then got a much more positive image of Christianity. When Paulus was in Rome he said ‘Everyone is equal, whether you are a master or a slave’. I did the project ‘Idealism’ with portraits of idealists.” On the wall I see a portrait of Herman Hesse, he also made portraits of Martin Luther King and John & Yoko. He also made conceptual works that were inspired by Memento Mori, portraits that have a relationship with death. He also ‘did’ a project about Mary.

willem van hest – 9

Experience of art life
willem van hest has been an artist for 45 years now. How did he experience art life? “The nice thing about the artist life is that you create something from nothing. ‘How is it possible that I made this?’ you think. ‘Great that you can do this. You are a bit like God’. Those are the joys of being an artist. In between I also had periods of ‘how should I continue?’ Difficult periods. Difficult weeks. Until it went well again. Especially because I started to develop in many ways. Some artists are focused on one thing, are a bit autistic. If you can’t continue then, you have a hard time. There is a lot of art on offer and much less demand. In view of that I have found new ways, such as art routes in Kralingen and Crooswijk. I also have an autistic side, but in addition I have the need to focus on others. Now I am chairman of the artists’ association Karmijn. You have to be open to do that, arrange things, give speeches etc.”

willem van hest – 10

Finally, what is his philosophy?
“You should go your own way, and not be guided by what others think. That will frustrate you. When I let go of the judgement of others, it became much more fun. I like almost everything. I follow my own path. I could not have imagined that I would ever do a project called ‘Last Phase’ and ‘Maria’. If you do not let yourself be forced into a straitjacket, worlds open up for you. It is one of the most beautiful areas of life: art. That is where the most interesting things in our society happen.”
Images
1)Rotterdam, bridge ‘De Hef’, screen print, 2) Rotterdam, Marktet Hall, stencil printing on paper, 3) Feijenoord stadium de Kuip, fineliner and watercolor, 4) wester pavilion Rotterdam, fineliner and watercolor, 5) photo of the socio-cultural project with partner ron blom; two homeless residents of Havenzicht helped create the painting, 6) Large mural in the Hague Painters district, a design for three schools in that district. It was for a playground where the children often meet after school, 7) A nude, n.t. acrylic on linen, 8) Self portrait willem van hest, 9) Paris, Rue Ordener with a piece of Sacre Coeur, fineliner and watercolor, 10) Self-portrait Willem van Hest, oil on paper, on the way to abstraction
facebook van willem
actuele website willem bij de ontmoeting
uitgebreide website willem tot 2017
website van kunstenaarscollectief karmijn
& instagram van karmijn
https://stichtingkunstwerkt.nl/deelnemers/wvhest
https://www.instagram.com/hestwillemvan/
https://inzaken.eu/2024/12/17/willem-van-hest-laat-je-niet-in-een-keurslijf-duwen-dan-gaan-werelden-voor-je-open/

 

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