Jef Diederen - Very large 1966 Lithograph on Japanese paper - Abstract - pencil signed - Sold

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

He attended the secondary applied arts school in Maastricht from 1939 to 1943, where he met Pieter Defesche and Ger Lataster. The arts and crafts school taught students in almost all art disciplines, from painting and graphics to glass art and theater design. Jef continued his education (Study in 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 Amsterdam Painters of Now 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 Rijksacademie, Diederen met, in addition to Lataster, Karel Appel and Corneille as his fellow students.
Until 1955 he mainly painted landscape gouaches and drawings. They are often realistic landscapes from his native region of South Limburg. The painters referred to as 'Amsterdam Limburgers' eventually became known with very diverse work, but they were all deeply influenced by French post/impressionist art. He then 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 in various sizes.
Jef Diederen's art is lyrical-abstract with a friendly and soft appearance, despite the strong colors. France has been an important source of inspiration. His work is further characterized by strong social commitment. He creates 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 Indians in the US, the Palestinian intifada, 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 tributes to his jazz heroes such as Albert Ayler or favorite artists such as Cézanne, and his artist friends Lei Molin and Pieter Defesche. He is inspired by, among others, 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 wall paintings 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 Den Bosch Art Academy.
In 1987 he was awarded the Jeanne Oosting Prize, a prize in appreciation of the individual artistic quality of an oeuvre within figurative art.