Jef Diederen - Very large 1965 Lithograph on Japanese paper - Abstract - pencil signed - Sold

• Jef Diederen (Heerlen, 25 August 1920 - Amsterdam, 26 March 2009) was a Dutch painter and graphic artist. Diederen was one of the so-called Amsterdam Limburgers. His later painting is considered abstract art.

From 1939 to 1943 he attended the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Maastricht, where he met Pieter Defesche and Ger Lataster. The school of applied arts taught students almost all art disciplines, from painting and graphics to glass art and theatre design. Jef continued his education (Drawing) at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in 1943, but left again a year later to continue his education in 1947. He took part in the group exhibition Amsterdamse schilders van Nu in 1948 and completed his studies in Monumental and Decorative Painting in 1951. In 1948, 1949 and 1950 he received the Royal Subsidy for Painting. At the Rijksakademie Diederen met Karel Appel and Corneille as fellow students, in addition to Lataster.
Until 1955 he painted mostly landscape gouaches, drawings. They are mostly realistic landscapes from his native region of South Limburg. The painters who are referred to as 'Amsterdam Limburgers' eventually became known for very diverse work, but they were all deeply influenced by French post/impressionist art. After that he developed - like Ger Lataster - in an abstract direction, although the landscape remained a great inspiration for him. The dimensions of his oil paintings were often idiosyncratic and therefore stood out. He also combined canvases of various sizes with each other.
Jef Diederen's art is lyrical-abstract with a friendly and soft appearance, despite the strong colours. France has been an important source of inspiration. His work is also characterised by strong social engagement. He makes works in response to, among other things, Apartheid in South Africa, the fate of the Jews in the Second World War, Nazi executions in the Ukraine, the oppression of the Indians in the US, the Palestinian intifada, the political prisoners in Spain under the Franco regime and the Vietnam War, but with his landscapes he also has an eye for the depopulation of the countryside in France. He makes extensive homages to his jazz heroes such as Albert Ayler or favourite artists such as Cézanne, and his artist friends Lei Molin and Pieter Defesche. He is inspired by, among other things, the texts of his friends the poets Lucebert and Bert Schierbeek and by medieval Spanish stories (such as 'Romance del Prisonero'). As an idiosyncratic artist, he has never sought permanent affiliation with groups or movements. In addition to his many paintings and works on paper, he also carried out various commissions for murals and stained glass windows. He is one of the most prominent graphic artists in the Netherlands after the Second World War. He also taught at the Art Academy of Den Bosch.
In 1987 he was awarded the Jeanne Oosting Prize, a prize in appreciation of the individual artistic quality of an oeuvre within figurative art.