Cor Alons

Cornelius Louis Alons , usually called Cor Alons for short (born June 11, 1892 in Groningen , † April 24, 1967 in The Hague ) was a Dutch interior and product designer . He is considered an important representative of Art Deco , which established itself as De Haagse Stijl or New Hague School in the Netherlands, and was a supporter of the purism of the De Stijl art movement, which was limited to functionality .

life and work

Alons attended the Academie Minerva in Groningen from 1911 to 1913 and the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague from 1913 to 1917 . He then found a job at Pander Meubelen , the leading company in the Netherlands at the time , which had already specialized in the manufacture of products based on the French Art Nouveau as early as 1895 . When imports from Germany and Belgium were interrupted during the First World War , Pander set up his own design department for modern interior art in 1917 under the direction of Henk Wouda (1885–1946) and where Alons and his fellow student J. Brunott got a starting position as a draftsman and gradually developed into the design of furniture and furnishings. His work was inspired by the handcrafted designs of British Modern Art designers such as Charles Robert Ashbee and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, as well as the work of the American Frank Lloyd Wright . He was 1919-1922 at various interior work for those of Jan Wils designed settlement Papaverhof involved, drafted in 1923 stained-glass windows made by the Atelier van Geldermalsen in Rotterdam were executed and designed wallpaper patterns for the still existing company Kinheim in Beverwijk .

In 1923, Alons Frits Spanjaard (1889–1978) became self-employed as a partner and opened a design office in Rijswijk, which belonged to the first generation of specialized interior designers in the Netherlands. They specialized in furnishing and converting private houses and not only designed furniture and other interiors, but also designed them into a unit with the rooms for which they were intended. They preferred clear, simple, often monumental forms made of dark, mostly valuable building materials and colors.

Furthermore, Alons was co-founder with CJ Muyen and from 1923 to 1927 artistic director of the ceramic workshop Aardewerkfabriek NV De Duinvoet , for which he contributed designs for vases and dishes.

Alons was best known for his tubular steel furniture, which was produced by the Oostwoud company in Franeker . Countless designs for chairs, armchairs, tables and desks were made according to his designs and are now available as replicas .

In 1929 Alons was appointed lecturer in the furniture design department at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten . During this time the academy played a pioneering role in the Netherlands. Under the influence of the Bauhaus , the new departments of graphic design, advertising, photography, design and furniture design were created. Lecturers of the avant-garde of that time included Alons, Gerrit Kiljan (1881–1961), Paul Schuitema (1897–1973) and Paul Citroen (1896–1983). The academy also expanded its curriculum as one of the first Dutch schools to include classes in industrial design , where Alons taught from 1934 until the 1960s.

Alons was a member of the Haagsche Kunstkring artists' association . In 1962, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, an exhibition was held in The Hague Municipal Museum.

literature

• Marc van der Burgh: Cor Alons - Binnenhuisarchitect en industrieel ontwerper (1892–1967). , Uitgeverij 010 Publishers, Rotterdam 1987. ISBN 90-6450-053-3 (Dutch)
• Titus M. Eilens, Marfan Groot, Frans Leidelmeijer: Avante-Garde Design: Dutch Decorative Arts 1880–1940. , Philip Wilson Publishers, London 2003. ISBN 0-8566-7466-4 (English)
• T. de Rijk: De Haagse Stijl - Art Deco in Nederland. , Uitgeverij 010 Publishers, Rotterdam 2004. ISBN 90-6450-537-3 (Dutch)

Web links

• Art bus: Cor Alons. Biography. (Dutch)