Jan van der Vaart - multiple tulip tower

multiple Tulip tower 42 x 23 cm azure blue. completely intact,

3Johannes Jacobus (Jan) van der Vaart (The Hague, October 17, 1931 – Leiden, November 8, 2000) was an influential ceramist from the 20th century. One of the important concepts in his work was the reintroduction of the tulip vase or tulip tower from the 17th century in a unique constructivist design.
Life course
Van der Vaart took a pottery course for amateurs at the Vrije Academie in The Hague with Just van Deventer and Theo Dobbelman, among others. He started as a ceramist in the fifties. His work has been very tight and geometric from the beginning. His geometric constructive style, the purity of the ceramics and the usability are characteristics that were important to Van der Vaart. There is always a perfect unity of material, form and glaze. He considered the form to be the most important because decoration detracted from the monumentality of his works. This monumentality went hand in hand with the prevailing architecture of that period. In particular, the modernist architecture related to De Stijl, which expresses clarity and considered simplicity, can be found in Van der Vaart's work. His work is also related to the abstract-geometric art production in the Netherlands after De Stijl.
In 1960 he settled in Amsterdam, and made study trips to Italy, France and England. Initially he made his work of stoneware, from 1961 also in porcelain. In 1962 Van der Vaart introduced the theme of the tulip vase in contemporary visual art, based on the idea of 'stacking shapes'. In this 'stacking of shapes' he built his vases and bowls from tight, geometric elements, which were combined in different ways. In doing so he attached importance to the functional use of his objects, that is to say, flowers belong in a vase. The tulip vases and towers consist of turned or hand-formed and from 1970 also of cast elements. Not only Van der Vaart used this shape again for his designs, fellow ceramists were also inspired by him.
Tulip vase in 5 parts (1962), bronze-colored glazed
During the sixties he started designing large-format vases. He did not design these unique pieces to experiment, purity and usability were still an important starting point. The unique pieces were received with great praise at various exhibitions and were also considered true masterpieces by collectors. In 1967 it became possible to cast his designs and market them as 'multiples', making the work affordable for many. In the first decades of his career, Van der Vaart had to develop and distribute his designs himself. Later, some designs were produced by the Royal Tichelaar Makkum and from 1984 he designed for Rosenthal AG in Germany for many years.
Certainly when he was appointed senior lecturer in ceramics at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam in 1968, he was an innovator of ceramic art in the Netherlands. He trained new generations of ceramists here until 1993, which gave him a great influence on the development of young ceramists such as Gerard and Els van Westerloo, Geert Lap, Wietske van Leeuwen, Anita Manshanden, Wouter Dam, Irene Vonck, Barbara Nanning, Mieke Blits, Alberdien Rullmann and Esther Stasse.[1]
In 1991, a retrospective exhibition entitled Jan van der Vaart 35 years of ceramics was on display at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. For the exhibition in Rotterdam, Jan van der Vaart designed a fan-shaped vase on a foot that is produced by the Royal Tichelaar Makkum (in the colours blue and tomato red).[2]
Later in life he also started making glass designs for Royal Leerdam[3] and for commissions from the Czech Republic. Fifty years after the liberation in 1995, Royal Leerdam had two orange vases designed by the then head designer of Royal Leerdam Siem van der Marel and Jan van der Vaart. Between 1994 and 1997 he made designs for Leerdam Unica, Leerdam Serica and several utensils for Royal Leerdam. Van der Vaart's designs can be considered among the best designs of the glass factory in recent decades. He made the design for the orange vase in his characteristic geometric style. It was released – just like that of Van der Marel – in a limited edition of 200 pieces.
Work
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Jan van der Vaart was already considered one of the most important Dutch ceramicists of the 20th century during his lifetime. As the founder of a geometric abstract direction within post-war ceramics, he was particularly influential at home and abroad. His work is very recognizable because of its idiosyncratic character and the logical and consistent elaboration of his artistic convictions.
Van der Vaart's work is clear in form, focused on the utensil and undecorated. Vases were his preference, both in turning and building or casting techniques. His designs are angular, simple and sober: many straight lines with softly gliding, often undulating surfaces. In addition, Van der Vaart makes ceramics in a more smoky, complex style. His work is also distinguished by the special tinted glazes that he applied to his vases, mainly the bronze-coloured glaze. But his white vases, with geometric shapes, are also generally considered his trademark. He also made series in bright pink, lilac and blue.
Van der Vaart wanted to make usable quality ceramics for a large audience. In addition to his unique pieces, he also created 'multiples', objects that were made and signed in limited editions. This gave them the authenticity of unique works of art and at the same time remained affordable. For both his unique pieces and his multiples, the casting technique was often used. In the case of the multiples, the shapes often came from one mould in their entirety, for the unique pieces, several parts were cast separately, which were then later combined into one whole.
His work hardly drew on predecessors, only influences from foreign ceramists were visible in his work. Jan van der Vaart had much admiration for Hans Copers, a German ceramist and Lucie Rie, an English ceramist.