Jacobus "Co" Westerik (2 March 1924 – 10 September 2018) was a Dutch visual artist.

Life and work

Born in The Hague on 2 March 1924, Westerik received his education at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague from 1942 to 1947. After his graduation he made a study trip to the United States in 1948. After his return to the Netherlands, he settled as an independent artist in The Hague. With the artists Herman Berserik, Jan van Heel, Willem Hussem and Jaap Nanninga he participated in the

Verve group The New Hague School (Dutch Nieuwe Haagse School) was a movement in the Dutch fine arts of the 1950s and 60s. It opposed the Cobra avant-garde movement and found its inspiration in 17th-century art and the experiences of the Barbizon School ...

,Co Westerik; male / Netherlandish; watercolorist, etcher, photographer, gouache painter, ceramicist, lithographer, painter, draftsman, wall painter, serigrapher, academy lecturer
at rkd.nl, 2015. which they founded in 1951 and dissolved in 1957. From 1954 to 1958, Westerik was lecturer at the International School and the German International School, and from 1955 to 1958 also at the

Vrije Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten Vrije Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten (Free Academy of Visual Art) was an art school in The Hague, Netherlands. It was founded in 1947 by Livinus van de Bundt. The last remaining part of the school, GEMAK, closed on December 4, 2015, after a 75% cu ...

in The Hague. From 1958 to 1971, he was a lecturer in figure drawing at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. Between 1960 and 1970, Westerik also lectured at Ateliers '63 in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

. In 1971, he moved to Rotterdam, and started a studio in the south of France, where he worked alternately until 2010. Westerik was awarded the Jacob Maris Prize three times: in 1951 and 1955 for painting and in 1953 for drawing. He also received the Rembrandt Prize of the city of Leiden, the State Prize for Visual Arts and Architecture, Cultural Prize of South Holland and the Hendrik Chabot Price of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. In 1999, he was appointed Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion and in 2005 an honorary member of Pulchri Studio. Westerik died on 10 September 2018 in Rotterdam at the age of 94.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westerik, Jacobus 1924 births 2018 deaths Dutch painters Dutch male painters Royal Academy of Art, The Hague alumni Academic staff of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion Artists from The Hague