Corrie de Boer (1932)

biography

Corrie de Boer lives and works in Amsterdam. She studies at the textile design department at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and in the early nineteen-seventies becomes known for her reliefs made of snow-white linen. Horizontal and vertical pleats provide a tension that is sometimes released into diagonals, squares or circles. Although the work appears to be very simple, as if its creation is effortless, Corrie de Boer always works from a previous sketch. She sometimes sits for days thinking and calculating about one of these sketches. Actually making the work is a huge task, nevertheless embroidering in straight lines for hours on end is a necessary part of her artistry. As de Boer says with regard to her reliefs and textile works:

‘I have a sort of love-hate relationship with textiles. On the one hand I love the material and it fascinates me, on the other hand I’m opposed to it as a visual material because its special qualities, stemming from its function, often have a significance of their own. For years I have been engaged in the process of organising the chaos in it or abstracting the reality. The choice of church linen reduces the material to a minimum so that I can use it to construct a personal image. For me this image arises from the theme ‘tree’ (vertical) and ‘landscape’ (horizontal). The two central ideas of vertical and horizontal have become visual definitions for the white reliefs. Three different categories have developed, which nevertheless have a surprising amount in common, particularly structure, geometry and the anecdotal (reminiscences of tree or landscape).’

In the early eighties Corrie de Boer turns to drawing. The purchase of an unusual elliptical stone from India, the lingam, the symbol in India for the universe and the erotic, leads to the series of large works entitled “Lingam”: oval forms composed of concentrated, restrained marks, applied in one intense and yet controlled movement. From the mid-eighties drawing forms the basis of her work. Sometimes on transparent paper, sometimes using existing cards and collages.

Corrie de Boer is constantly reorienting and this characterises her work. She has many exhibitions both at home and abroad to her name and her work is owned by the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst in The Hague and the Nederlands Textielmuseum, Tilburg, among others. The LAC in Sigean (FR) recently bought a Lingam work from her.

Corrie de Boer: On the go.

"I can still remember very clearly my amazement and fascination as a young girl of ten or twelve, when I saw four drawings hanging in the hall of the artist Adriaan Lubbers’ house in Laren. They looked like scratch marks and I had never seen anything like it. I saw them again years later in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. "For Lub and Miep from Piet" was written on them. Mondrian, of course.
Where did it begin? Training at the School for Applied Art in Amsterdam that later became the Rietveld Academie. At that time the most adventurous art education in The Netherlands. With a couple of lecturers who had been trained at the famous Bauhaus. At the academy “why” was more important than “how”.
I went to the textile department. Besides designing patterns you were free to do what was important to you. Discovering new possibilities, that was the challenge. In the course of which the imperative requirement was abstraction. A new time was dawning, as we thought then.
For myself, I had a sort of love-hate relationship with textiles. On the one hand I loved the material, on the other hand I was opposed to it as a visual material because its special qualities stemming from its function, already had a significance of their own.

In the time after the academy my marriage to an architect brought me into contact with the discipline of architecture. This contact and sometimes my involvement with these influenced my early work. The result was large monumental canvases with ribbing of oakum cotton, "Ribs". The last of these was 20 x 0.8 meters. Textile yes, but no colour. And then one day someone asked: "Why so big? Couldn’t you make something the size of a postage stamp?" Good challenge. The material I found was white church linen. Taking both the material and dimensions to a minimum. Theme: tree-vertical versus landscape-horizontal. Here, in contrast to a line that is drawn on a flat surface, the pliability of the material creates volumes as well as lines. Shadow, thus. Three different categories were created, namely structure, geometry and the anecdotal with reminiscences of tree and landscape. The size of two postage stamps to start with, later growing to a larger format. Within which circles also emerged. "Whites".

The process of plying needle and thread, the repetition of it, had the feeling of writing letters. "Lines" were born. Lines written with linen thread on a white background. The last series was "Handelingen 78". Twelve parts for the twelve months in the year 1978. (Each day’s progress was finished with a red thread making all twelve parts different).
After this marathon session I never touched textile again (as a visual material).
Life goes on and the challenges come from elsewhere. Drawing thus. Always rejected as an incident too personal. "Circles". Lines drawn with a brush on narrow strips of transparent paper. Assembled into circles. At about that time I found an unusual elliptical stone from India. The "lingam" and a symbol for the universe and the erotic in India. The Lingam drawings flowed from this. Sometimes in combination with circles. This produced a pleasing form of contrast.
Then came the question: How do I depart from the flat surface? Knock a nail in the wall. Then build out from this (using card) in lines on the wall. Usually repeating the same element here, too. "White Reliefs ". Back to the voyage of discovery: drawing or that which drawing could be for me.
In a magazine with reproductions of paintings by Rubens I was struck by the aesthetics of the representation of violence. Violence in art. "Rape of the daughters ", "Battle of the Amazons", and so forth. Violence in art series. Long strips of transparent paper. Sometimes layered over each other. Drawing like music that reaches out in time.
"Hey man, that's music", said the saxophonist David Murray when he saw the drawings.
The next subject for drawing came up as I watched my grandson crawling. Little feet that had not yet walked. Crawling behind taking photos. Drawings taken from this. “Little Feet” series. Here too the process of repetition and the developments therein.
Drawing like flowing water. Switching off any intention, go with the flow.
Then drawing without a subject. Following the lines of the landscape on the translucent backs of maps.
You choose a route and the rest follows on from this. Like on a piano. You press C and you allow the melody to develop from here. “Maps” series.
Repetition and the restrained use of colour are always recurring themes in my work. Colour only when absolutely necessary.
Recently the theme has been tidying up. Oddments of old work are being transformed into new work. Sometimes under the title "Nice and tidy", or a title after a text from John Cage: "We have the feeling we are getting nowhere and that is a pleasure".

I should also mention my involvement with activities in the far North, Finsterwolde, Galerie Waalkens, later Stichting de Boer Waalkens (1976-2004). Organising exhibitions and events including the "Koetekendagen" (Cow drawing days). I saw this as part of my work as an artist: Good Art, nice house, tasty soup." 

work

Corrie de Boer, 1976, Lingam drawing, 176 x 112 cm

Corrie de Boer, 1977, Regels, thread and textile

Corrie de Boer, Wit reliëf, thread and linen, 50 x 50 cm

Corrie de Boer, 1977, Wit reliëf, Serie b, thread and linen,

exhibitions

• 1973 - Galerie Collection d'Art, Amsterdam
• 1974 - Galerie Nouvelle Image, The Hague
• 1974 - Galerie Stoll, Cologne
• 1975 - Biennale of Tapistry, Lausanne
• 1976 - Galerie Waalkens, Finsterwolde
• 1976 - 2nd Exhibition of Miniature Textiles, London
• 1976 - Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
• 1976 - Galerie Collection d'Art, Amsterdam
• 1977 - Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
• 1978 - Part of the Dutch exhibition in Czechoslovakia
• 1978 - Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
• 1979 - Galerie Waalkens, Finsterwolde
• 1980 - 'Bekijk het maar', Rijksmuseum Twente, Enschede
• 1981 - Galerie Asselijn, Amsterdam
• 1981-1983 - travelling exhibition U.S.A. 'The Art Faabric' Mainstream
• 1982 - Kunstzaal Hengelo
• 1983 - 'Gesignaleerd', Kunshalle, Kiel
• 1984 - Galerie Lambert Tegenbosch, Heusden and Amsterdam
• 1984 - Galerie Waalkens, Finsterwolde
• 1985 - Galerie Liesbeth Lips, Amsterdam
• 1986 - 'Kunstenaars zien Egypte', Museum Allard Pierson Amsterdam
• 1986 - Galerie Waalkens, Finsterwolde
• 1987 - Galerie 'Im Winter', Bremen
• 1988 - Part of the exhibition 'Vijf tekenaars Nu', Aken
• 1988 - Art Amsterdam
• 1990 - Archipel, Apeldoorn
• 1991 - Galerie Phoebus, Rotterdam
• 1991 - Kunstzaal Librije, Zwolle
• 1992 - Galerie Waalkens, Finsterwolde
• 1993 - Participation in 'Sculptuur in het Landschap', Borg Rusthoven, Wirdum
• 1993 - Kunstrai Amsterdam
• 1994 - Galerie Nanky de Vreeze, Amsterdam
• 1995 - Galerie Ooggetuige, Beesterzwaag
• 1996 - Galerie Ram, Rotterdam
• 1997 - Koetekendagen, Finsterwolde
• 2003 - Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
• 2004 - Galerie de Parade, Amsterdam
• 2006 - Kunstruimte, Heerenveen
• 2010 - Borzo modern & contemporary art, Amsterdam (groupexhibition)
• 2011 - Borzo modern & contemporary art, Amsterdam