Jan van Doorn - unieke sculptuur / linosteen met abstracte voorstelling in CoBrA stijl - Sold

Offered for auction: two unique stones by artist Jan van Doorn, hand-carved, probably used for creating graphic work. Exceptional to encounter these stones. A graphic work of art is made in editions, but here the hand of the artist is immediately visible. In addition, the beautiful sight are self-standing sculptures.
There are 2 stones: - female figure (mother and child?) 18x12.3x1.8 / 918 gr signed with DOORN - bull (Egyptian god Apis?) 9.8x11.8x1.8 / 414 gr.
About Jan van Doorn Jan Pieter Cornelis van Doorn Breda 1911 - Nijmegen 1997, got to know the meaning of art while a prisoner of war in Germany, in the years 1943-1945. To forget the misery of life, he began to draw scenes from camp life and illustrated passports and diaries of fellow prisoners. When he returned to Nijmegen at the end of May 1945, he knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life: to work as an artist.
His interest initially focused mainly on graphics, encouraged by Nol Klaassen of printing house De Volharding, he designed ex-libris and advertising material. He also made free graphics. In 1947 he joined the Community of Visual Artists Nijmegen GBNK. His woodcuts and wood engravings were for years a permanent fixture at the exhibitions of this artists' association.
His ambitions grew, he designed stained glass windows for Rustoord in Nijmegen, for the current Mosaic College in Arnhem and a bank building in Rotterdam. He made wall decorations for cinemas in The Hague and Nijmegen, the former Studio, mosaics for Dullaert in Deventer and for the Spaarbank in Nijmegen. A highlight was the glazing of the two auditoriums of the Moscowa cemetery in Arnhem, executed in 1969-1970.
In the meantime he had become a member of the Scheppend Ambacht Gelderland, with which he exhibited throughout the province, but also in Belgium, Germany and England. In artistic Nijmegen, Van Doorn was well known, he engraved, calligraphed, illustrated, gave lectures on graphics, was a board member of the GBKN and the SAG for many years.
He became friends with the architects Roel Rodenburg and Jan Jansen, with visual artists Toon Vijftigschild, Wim van Woerkom, Jac Maris, Jan Sleeboom, Ted Felen and the Homan couple. The writers Johan van Nieuwenhuyzen and Van Tienhoven also belonged to his circle of friends. For the municipality of Nijmegen he illustrated the well-known rhyme poem by Anton van Duinkerken about Nijmegen, which was distributed among Nijmegen youth in 1955.
He designed the certificates for the Charlemagne Prizes of 1956, 1958 and 1961, as well as the certificate that the municipality of Nijmegen presented to General Montgomery.
After retiring in 1976 from the bank where he was a power of attorney and specialist in securities, Van Doorn devoted himself entirely to art. Man and nature, mythology and jazz music were his main sources of inspiration.
Van Doorn left behind a rich and very varied oeuvre. His etchings, wood engravings and linocuts are highly regarded by specialists and enthusiasts.
Various museums, including the Print Room of the Rijksmuseum, Museum Het Valkhof and Schloss Moyland, have included graphic works by Van Doorn in their collections. The great appreciation for the graphic side of his artistry is in line with the way in which he himself viewed his oeuvre. Looking back on a rich artistic career, he said, I love my graphics the most.
Education: practical experience at various glass studios in the Netherlands, training in hand drawing LO with the Nijmegen draftsman HVA van Hooijdonk (1948), self-taught as a graphic artist and painter
Exhibitions in the region: Waag Nijmegen 1950, De Waag Nijmegen 1961, Nijmegen art market 1964, Commanderie van St. Jan Nijmegen 1987
Genre and technique: graphic artist, glazier, painter and draftsman; applied art: ex-libris (from 1941, e.g. for fellow artists such as Jac Maris, Els Tervoort and Ted Felen), posters, calendars, designed and made stained glass windows Technische School Arnhem, Aula Moscowa Arnhem, glass and ceramic mosaics, concrete reliefs, wall paintings and decorations, painted roof tiles for the Bijou theater in The Hague, and occasional graphics, often for printing company Volharding in Nijmegen, rhyme print with a poem by Anton van Dunkirk, offered to the youth of Nijmegen and certificate from the city of Nijmegen for General Montgomery in 1955
Drawings: pencil, Siberian chalk and OI ink 1943-1945, woodcuts and wood engravings from 1947, watercolour, gouaches, linocuts, small, sometimes ceramic sculptures in which bullets and other war memories were processed, from 1976 mainly graphic work that was often created in series
Typology: Jan van Doorn passes for an expressionist artist, with the note that he possesses abstract tendencies.
Jan van Doorn: It's not exactly like that, I'm a man who loves nature very much, I draw inspiration from that. But while I say that, I also have to say that I also like music very much, jazz music in particular. I experience those two themes from the inside. What I convey in my work is the essence of things I see and experience, and that is something very different from abstraction.
Exhibited in the country and his work is represented in many national and international collections of companies, institutions, municipalities, museums and private individuals. A highly regarded artist and designer. (Source: The Art Historian)