Gerard Verdijk (1934–2005) - z.t.

This abstract work from 1963 by Gerard Verdijk is executed in a powerful, material-rich painterly style. The vertical composition consists of intersecting bands, angular fields of color, and a prominent curved form that dominates the center of the image. Dark brown and black form a heavy counterpoint to bright blue, white and turquoise, with accents in red, orange and yellow. The paint is applied locally thick and with scraping, creating a lively surface in which underlying layers remain visible.

The combination of geometric fragments, strong diagonals, and signs aligns with Verdijk’s work from the early 1960s, when urban structures, letters and signs penetrated his visual language. Lower left signed and dated G.V. ’63; on the reverse also marked G. Verdijk 1963. Dimensions of the work: 60 × 40 cm. Including frame: 73 × 53 × 4 cm.

Biography of the artist
Gerard Verdijk (Boxmeer, 1934 – The Hague, 2005) was active within the innovative Hague art climate of the 1950s and 60s and joined the artist group Fugare, which also included Jaap Nanninga and Willem Hussem. His early paintings are regarded as informal art and are characterized by a strong emphasis on matter and spontaneous painting movement. In the 1960s he increasingly incorporated urban signs, letters, vivid colors and graphic structures. Later, his oeuvre shifted toward restrained compositions around space, movement, contrast and balance. Verdijk had a solo exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in 1972 and in 1993 at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The Dordrechts Museum houses a substantial collection of his paintings, drawings, prints and objects and organized a retrospective in 2016–2017.