Hannes Postma (1933-2020) - Zonder titel

Rare early work by the painter Hannes Postma from 1959. This is a piece executed in mixed media (gouache and ink) with the dimensions 44.5 x 31 cm. The painting is signed and dated in the lower left corner.

Johannes Gerardus Maria (Hannes) Postma (Haarlem, February 20, 1933 – Amsterdam, November 5, 2020) was a Dutch painter, draftsman and graphic artist.

He was the son of Maria Cornelia van Bemmelen and office clerk Bartholomeus Nicolaas Postma. At the municipality of Amsterdam he was previously known as an office clerk.

Postma studied art at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam, but he largely trained himself as a painter. He made, among other things, paintings, etchings, lithographs, wall paintings, charcoal drawings and sculptures. Postma won several international prizes, including first prize at the International Triennale for Color Graphics in Grenchen (1964), the Prix de la Critique in Paris (1965), the A. Schwarz Prize (1966) and the grand prize at the Krakow Biennale (1966). Remco Campert published the volume Zeven vrijheden in 1984, with poems accompanying Postma’s etchings.

His oeuvre consists of oil paintings on canvas, iron and plaster sculptures, silkscreens and etchings. In the 1960s the artist gained much recognition with his color etchings series.

From 1973 to 1978 Postma created the series “sea paintings.” During this period he belonged to the “Hague School corner,” an anarchistic art group of artists who did not want to be influenced by external forces, neither by traditions nor by teachers.

A few years later Postma sought affiliation with Nieuwe Figuratie. Characteristic of the art of painters in this group, Postma combined figurative and abstract elements in his works. In his abstract creations the viewer can occasionally find recognizable, figurative motifs, such as human figures, torsos or limbs. The disproportionate human figures, stretched or compressed, appear to float through space. A hallmark of Postma’s style is the use of imaginative forms. The works are often layered, and dripping paint is clearly visible. Other distinguishing features of Postma’s art, and of Nieuwe Figuratie, are the tension between the flat plane and the illusion of space, and the sparkling use of color.

Besides being a visual artist, Postma was a lecturer at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts from 1971 to 1988, alongside Klaas Gubbels and Kees Franse. His work is represented in corporate, private, institutional and museum collections, including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and the Museum voor Moderne Kunst in Arnhem. In 1967 the book Hocus Focus was published, a book about Postma’s art. Hannes Postma died in 2020 at the age of 87.