Jaap Mooy (1915-1987) - Zonder titel

Abstract work by the artist Jaap Mooy. Mixed technique on cardboard. Featuring a monogram (JM) and a year (62). The work is still in the original list. On the back, the label from Kunsthandel Gazendam in Groningen.

Provenance

Atelier Jaap Mooy, Bergen
Kunsthandel Gazendam, Groningen
Collectie Alex Mulder, Zuidhorn

Jaap Mooy was an idiosyncratic and influential Dutch sculptor, painter and draftsman. He lived and worked for most of his life in the well-known artist’s village Bergen (North Holland), where he was a key figure within the KunstenaarsCentrumBergen (KCB). He closely associated with artists such as Lucebert and Jaap Wagemaker. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Mooy experienced his international breakthrough with wild, material-like abstract compositions and 'action painting'. His work was during that period exhibited in leading museums such as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and even in New York.

The Connection with Kunsthandel Gazendam
Although Mooy was based in Bergen, he had a strong and direct link to Groningen. Kunsthandel Gazendam (led by Jurjen Gazendam) was in the 1960s not merely a local Groningen shop, but one of the most important players in Northern Netherlands for modern and avant-garde art. They actively brought the work of the leading Dutch innovators to the North.

The link with the Groninger Museum: In the 1960s there was an intensive exchange between the progressive art scene in Bergen and Groningen. This later even resulted in Jaap Mooy receiving a major solo exhibition at the Groninger Museum in the autumn of 1968.

Kunsthandel Gazendam served as the official sales channel for museum-worthy pieces in Groningen. This painting from 1962 was most likely purchased by Gazendam or consigned directly from Mooy’s studio, or acquired around his exhibitions in the North.