Gerard Pieter Adolfs
Gerard Pieter Adolfs (born January 2, 1898 in Semarang , Central Java, today Indonesia , † February 1, 1968 in 's-Hertogenbosch , Netherlands ) was a Dutch-East Indian painter and architect . In the 1930s - at the height of his artistic career - Adolfs was described by the press as the “magician of light”.
Life
Adolfs spent his childhood and youth on Java . His father Cornelis Gerardus Adolfs was an architect and amateur painter, photographer and pianist. At the age of 14, Adolfs was brought to the Netherlands by his father. He first attended middle school in Amsterdam and began studying architecture at the University of Amsterdam in 1916 . After completing his studies, he moved back to Java, the cold, damp Dutch climate did not appeal to him. Back on Java, Adolfs built houses in Yogyakarta , Solo and Surabaya .
At the age of about 24, Adolfs discovered his inclination for the performing arts. He exchanged the drawing pen for drypoint, drawing pen and brush and from then on devoted his life entirely to painting. Already known as an advertising illustrator, Adolfs was presented to the Yogyakarta public for the first time as a painter, watercolorist and draftsman in March 1924 under the patronage of the "Kunstkring". The press described him as a talented artist and predicted a prosperous future for him.
On the one hand a bon vivant and enjoying life to the fullest, on the other hand GP Adolfs was a disciplined workaholic who worked tirelessly, systematically and hard for his success. From Java he made study trips to Florence , Rome , Zurich , Vienna , Budapest , Prague and - together with his Japanese painter friend Léonard Tsuguharu Fujita - to Paris and organized exhibitions in Surabaya, Tokyo , Singapore , London , Amsterdam , Bern and San Francisco . In 1940, shortly before the occupation of the Netherlands, Adolfs came to Europe. Many of his older works, together with the torpedoed and sunken cargo ship Simaloer, were thought to be lost; other pictures were destroyed in the bombing of Nijmegen in February 1944. After the war, Adolfs lived mainly in Amsterdam, wrote and illustrated books, got inspiration for his painting in Scandinavia , France , Spain , Italy and North Africa and exhibited in well-known galleries.
Although Adolfs never returned to Java after the war, he remained true to the main motifs of his works: market scenes, Balinese dancers, cockfights, landscapes and street scenes from Java and Bali . In 1967 he retired to a village in South Holland and died on February 1st in 's-Hertogenbosch.
Reviews
“Amongst those who have brought drawings and paintings from the Dutch East Indies, GP Adolfs stands out on account of the striking frankness of his style. These are not the aperçus of a typical Dutch painter seeking to achieve atmosphere and tone at all costs; but neither is there any forced exoticism in the style. He knows how to inform us directly and spontaneously of the atmosphere of a particular location - both in his paintings and in his sketches and water-colors. He tells us about the special mixture of the intimate and the fantastic in an old quarter of Surabaya and about the phantasmagorical might of a tall temple gate topped with a monstrous idol; he tells us about the epic quality of the lakes with proa boats sailing on them; and about the graceful indolence of local people leaning against broken walls. He has the unpretentiousness of true inspiration, and some of his compositions - the one with the temple gates and the one with the well - convey a strong and strange enchantment to the observer ”
'Many are called, but few are chosen!' One of those few is Ger. P. Adolfs, whose income as a painter allows him to travel to Europe, Japan and China for instance
"His paintings are among the best we have seen for expressing the spirit, the color and the vivid sunshine of this part of the world."
“… What rich colors! And those little warong scenes, that cockfight, those dancers. . . They are all real. And so are the colors. It all goes straight to the heart of the matter. It's all been captured on the canvas with talent and feeling. This is the vision of an artist who has traveled across the Orient for twenty years, seeking to fathom the soul, the inner being of his living themes. He has fathomed them. "
“In his works he has always attempted to represent the light, color and the simple joy of life that impregnates the native scenes of the East. As can be seen from the works reproduced, he has a bold, vigorous style, applying his pigments with quick strokes of the palette knife. "
literature
.jpg)
- GP Adolfs: SOERABAIA . Jacob van Campen, Amsterdam 1946/1947.
- Günther Meissner (Ed.): General artist lexicon. VEB EA Seemann Verlag, Leipzig 1983.
- Eveline Borntraeger-Stoll, Gianni Orsini: Gerard Pieter Adolfs - The Painter of Java and Bali . Pictures Publishers, Wijk en Aalburg 2008, ISBN 978-90-73187-62-7 .
- AT Dermawan: A collector's journey - Modern painting in Indonesia: Collection of Jusuf Wanandi. Center for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta and Neka Museum, Ubud 1996.
- FF Habnit: Krèta Sètan, de duivelswagen. Car pioneers van Insulinde. Tong Tong, The Hague 1977.
- L. Haks, G. Maris: Lexicon of foreign artists who visualized Indonesia 1600–1950 . Gert Jan Bestebreurtje, Utrecht 1995.
- George HC Hart: Het sprookje van de kleine prinses, het arme waschmeisje en de vlinder . Melbourne 1943. (First published in Surabaya, 1928.)
- C. Holt: Art in Indonesia, Continuities and Change . Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY 1967.
- Java-China-Japan-Line: Bali and Java . De Unie, 1938.
- Lee Man Fong: Paintings and Statues from the President Sukarno of the Republic of Indonesia. II. Publishing Committee of Collection of paintings and statues of President Sukarno, Jakarta 1964.
- Pieter A. Scheen : Nederlandse beeldende kunstenaars 1880–1980. Pieter A. Scheen BV, The Hague 1981.
- H. Spanjaard: Exploring Modern Indonesian Art: The Collection of Dr Oei Hong Djien. SNP Editions, Singapore 2004.
- R. Spruit: Indonesian Impressies. Oosterse themes in de westerse schilderkunst. Pictures Publishers, Wijk en Aalburg 1992.
- the studio. A Magazine of Fine and Applied Art. Vol. 94, No 412, July 1927, pp. 62-63.
- the studio. A Magazine of Fine and Applied Art. Vol. 140, No 691, October 1950, pp. 116-117.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Adolfs, Gerard Pieter |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Adolfs, Ger P .; GP |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Painter, architect, self-taught, Dutch East Indies, Java, Bali, Surabaya |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 2, 1898 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Semarang , Central Java |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1st February 1968 |
| Place of death | 's-Hertogenbosch , Holland |