Jan Jordens - Groninger Ploeg - ca. 1930 - signed woodcut - mountainous landscape - Sold

• Jordens' parents had a grocery store in Wageningen. In his youth, he received drawing lessons from his uncle. After secondary school, Jordens left for The Hague at the age of seventeen. He wanted to become a lithographer and went to work at the Lithographic Institute Lankhout. In the evenings, he studied for the MO drawing certificate at the Hague Academy. In 1906, he went to the Rijksnormaalschool voor Teekenonderwijzers in Amsterdam and in 1907 he was appointed as a drawing teacher at the Rijks HBS in Warffum. In Amsterdam, he had met Henriëtte Barbara Luchsinger. He married her in 1908.

In 1918, the Groningen Art Circle De Ploeg was founded and Jordens joined the association that same year. In November 1918, he became a member of the board. Jordens remained a member of De Ploeg, with a few interruptions, until 1950. In the early years of De Ploeg, he worked closely with Jan Wiegers. Wiegers had returned from Davos in 1921, where he had met Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Wiegers had made many etchings with Kirchner and he also encouraged Jordens to further develop this technique. In 1921, they made a number of etchings with identical subjects together. Together with Wiegers, Jordens headed the editorial team of the Blad voor de Kunst, founded in 1921. Jordens supplied woodcuts and etchings in an expressionist style for the various issues. He also actively contributed to the Ploeg organ Het Kouter, founded in 1924. Jordens was not only a member of De Ploeg. In the period 1921-1925 he was a member of De Onafhankelijkheden, which allowed him to stay in touch with artists outside the Groningen avant-garde. He painted numerous portraits in the twenties, in which the influence of German expressionism is clearly visible. In the period 1930-1940 Jordens experimented with different styles. Cubist-tinged work was alternated with more naturalistic paintings. After the Second World War he continued to experiment with all kinds of materials and techniques (collages, stencil prints, watercolours). The series of watercolours that were created on Schiermonnikoog are very special. Stylistically they show affinity with the working method of Jackson Pollock. In 1950, Jordens and others, dissatisfied with the state of affairs within De Ploeg, founded the artists' association Het Narrenschip. In 1951, he finally severed ties with De Ploeg. In 1956 Jordens received the Cultural Prize of the province of Groningen. In 1958 W. Jos de Gruyter organised anniversary exhibitions for Jordens and Jan van der Zee. On that occasion he characterised Jordens as "a painting musician, who plays improvisations again and again". Jordens died in 1962.