Constant Anton Nieuwenhuys (21 July 1920 – 1 August 2005), better known as Constant, was a Dutch painter, sculptor, graphic artist, author and musician.

Early period

Constant was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

on 21 July 1920 as the first son of Pieter Nieuwenhuijs and Maria Cornelissen. Their second son,

Jan Nieuwenhuys Jan Nieuwenhuys (January 8, 1922 – December 28, 1986) was a Dutch painter and one of the early active founders of the Dutch Experimentalists group (Reflex) that later became part of CoBrA. Life and work Nieuwenhuys was born in Amsterdam ...

, was born a year later. Both sons became artists although their parents had no apparent interest in art.Constant, une rétrospective, Musée Picasso Antibes, 2001 As a young child Constant drew passionately and showed great talent. He read literature with a special preference for poetry and played musical instruments. During his teenage years he learned to sing and to read music while in the church choir at the

Ignatius Gymnasium , logo = , image = Ignatiusgymnasium.jpg , image_size = 270px , alt = , caption = St. Ignatius Gymnasium in Amsterdam , motto = , location = Jan van Eijckstraat , city = Amsterdam , province = , country = Netherlands , coordinates = ...

, a prestigious

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

school in Amsterdam. In his later years, greatly inspired by gypsy music, he only played improvised music. He played guitar, violin and at 45 years of age also mastered playing the

cimbalon The cimbalom (; ) or concert cimbalom is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath. It was designed and created by V. Josef Schunda in 1874 in ...

.Trudy van der Horst, Constant. De Late Periode, BnM uitgevers, Nijmegen, 2008 Constant painted his first oil painting, ''De Emmaüsgangers'', at age sixteen. It depicted the revelation of Jesus to two of his followers in

Emmaus Emmaus (; Greek: Ἐμμαούς, ''Emmaous''; la, Emmaus; , ''Emmaom''; ar, عمواس, ''ʻImwas'') is a town mentioned in the Gospel of Luke of the New Testament. Luke reports that Jesus appeared, after his death and resurrection, before tw ...

. With no money to buy materials he painted this painting on a

jute Jute is a long, soft, shiny bast fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', which is in the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ''Corchorus olit ...

sugar bag with pigments he had bought from a house painter. Many of Constant's early drawings and paintings are religiously inspired, due to his Jesuit schooling. Yet at the age of twenty Constant turned his back on Catholicism. After one year studying at the Kunstnijverheidsschool (Arts and Crafts School), Constant attended the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunst (State Academy of Fine Arts) from 1939 to 1941. This education in craftmanship was put to use especially during his "New Babylon" period, when Constant built many constructions and models. Constant lived and worked in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

from 1941 to 1943. Through the Bergense School he was introduced to the work of

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

, which impacted him deeply, as evident in ''Zelfportret'' (Self Portrait), 1942.M. Hummelink, Après Nous La Liberté. Constant en de artistieke avant-garde in de jaren 1946-1960,

Universiteit van Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

, 2002 On 13 July 1942 he married Matie van Domselaer, the daughter of the composer

Jakob van Domselaer Jakob van Domselaer (15 April 1890 in Nijkerk, Gelderland – 5 January 1960) was a Dutch composer. Domselaer was born at Nijkerk, Netherlands. In 1912, he traveled to Paris where he met the Dutch painter Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), eventually ...

. The city of Bergen was evacuated by the Germans in 1943 and so Constant and Matie moved back to Amsterdam. During this period Constant went into hiding and refrained from registering at the Kulturkammer (Nazi Chamber of Culture) to avoid the Arbeitseinsatz (labour supply for the Germans). Because of this he was unable to conventionally exercise his craft or to buy art supplies. To paint Constant used tablecloths and bed linen and had to rinse them out to start again. During the war Constant's brother in law, Jaap van Domselaer, moved into the apartment to hide from the 'Arbeitseinsatz.' He introduced Constant to

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

, Spinoza, Descartes, Kant,

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

and Marx. Especially the latter provided great inspiration to Constant regarding his later ideas on art and society. During the winter famine of 1944 Constant's first son, Victor Nieuwenhuys, was born. After the war, Constant, his wife and son moved back to Bergen only to return to Amsterdam in 1946 where they lived in an apartment across from the zoo Artis. When the war ended Constant was able to expand and grow as an artist after years of captivity and limitations. He liberated himself artistically and experimented with multiple techniques of art-making. He was inspired by

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

, especially by

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

. In 1946 his daughter Martha was born, followed by his daughter Olga in 1948.

CoBrA

In 1946 Constant travelled to Paris for the first time where he met the young Danish painter Asger Jorn. The friendship between Jorn and Constant later formed the basis for the avant-garde movement CoBrA.Fanny Kelk, Constant, G.I.N. Gallery, Amsterdam 1977 July 1948 Constant founded Reflex ' with

Corneille Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronag ...

Karel Appel Christiaan Karel Appel (; 25 April 1921 – 3 May 2006) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-gard ...

and his brother

. The first edition of the magazine ''Reflex'' was published with a manifesto written by Constant. For Constant art had to be experimental. He had deducted this from the French word 'expérience' and believed that art springs from experience of the artist and is continuously changing. In the manifesto he stated that the process of creation is more important to the experimental artist than the work itself; it is a means to reach spiritual and mental enrichment. Also, the work of experimental artists is a mirror image of changes in the general perception of beauty.M. Hummelink, Constant. Paintings 1948-1995, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1995 Constant, Corneille and Appel, three totally different characters and artists, were united in their quest for innovation. They exhibited their work together and were often seen together in the European art scene. The wanderlust of the three is especially notorious.De A van CoBrA in Woord en Beeld, Jaski Art Gallery, Amsterdam, 1998 Later in the year 1948 on the terrace of café Notre Dame in Paris the ''Experimentele Groep in Holland'' linked up with Christian Dotremont and

Joseph Noiret Joseph Noiret (28 February 1927 – 17 January 2012) was a Belgian painter, writer and poet. He was also the founder of COBRA (avant-garde movement) and Review Phantomas, and director of La Cambre long. Biography Early life Noiret was born on ...

from Belgium and Asger Jorn from Denmark to form CoBrA, a name which was made by Dotremont, formed by the first letters of their hometowns: Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. The members opposed aesthetics in painting and bourgeois art in general. Constant had already outlined their ideas in his manifesto in ''Reflex'' magazine. This manifesto contains another of his famous quotes: "A painting is not a structure of colours and lines, but an animal, a night, a cry, a man, or all of these together". Constant was productive during the CoBrA period. ''White Bird'' (1948), ''Ladder'' (1949) and ''Scorched Earth I'' (1951) are some of his noted works from this period. At this time CoBrA published bulletin additional artists from several different disciplines joined their ranks. In 1948 Constant, together with poet

Gerrit Kouwenaar Gerrit Kouwenaar (9 August 1923 – 4 September 2014) was a Dutch journalist, translator, poet and prose writer. Biography Kouwenaar was born in Amsterdam, North Holland. In the early 1940s, during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, he w ...

, published a poetry album ''Goede Morgen Haan''. Additionally there were two large CoBrA exhibitions, one in Amsterdam in 1949 and one in Liège in 1951. The director of the

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

(Municipal Museum of Amsterdam), Willem Sandberg, was very supportive of young artists and fully supported the CoBrA group by giving them seven large rooms to exhibit their work in. Most of the CoBrA works had been fairly small due to their lack of money and so Sandberg gave the artists an advance to create some larger works in the week before the exhibition. Constant, Corneille, Appel and Eugène Brands created several large pieces of art that have become iconic for the movement. The architect

Aldo van Eyck Aldo van Eyck (; 16 March 1918 – 14 January 1999) was a Dutch architect. He was one of the most influential protagonists of the architectural movement Structuralism. Family He was born in Driebergen, Utrecht, a son of poet, critic, essayist ...

was commissioned to shape the exhibition. The works of art as well as the way they were presented give rise to harsh critique from press and public. A critic from Het Vrije Volk wrote: "Geklad, geklets en geklodder in het Stedelijk Museum" ("Smirch, twaddle and mess in the Municipal Museum"). The CoBrA artists were considered scribblers and con artists. In the Liège exhibition in 1951, even larger than the Stedelijk exhibition, the CoBrA group dissolved itself and with its tenth edition bulletin publication. As Christian Dotremont, the international secretary, stated in Museum News in 1962 the group would rather "mourir en beauté" (die in beauty) than become a regular artist interest group.

Situationist International

After CoBrA Constant's work became more abstract. Back in Amsterdam in the summer of 1952 he developed an interest in spatial architecture and three-dimensional works. With Aldo van Eyck, whom he met during his CoBrA time, he created a space for the exhibition 'Man and House' at the Urban Museum Amsterdam from 1952-1953. In 1954 he worked on a project with Gerrit Rietveld. Together they created a model house for warehouses de Bijenkorf. In 1952 Constant received a scholarship from the

Arts Council of Great Britain The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...

to study in London for three months. There he met, amongst others,

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

, Anthony Hill, Kenneth Martin, Ben Nicholson,

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadi ...

, Roger Hilton and Victor Pasmore. He found the art climate in London very welcoming. As opposed to Paris, Constant felt that art was judged more objectively. At that time Constant lived near

Kensington Gardens Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde P ...

and as he walked through the bombed city every day he started to wonder how people live and how cities should be built. His stay in London raised his awareness of how the constructions that surround us influence us. He felt that the constructions of his time were mostly practical, immensely dull and provided no room to develop playful and creative lifestyles. In the summer of 1956 Asger Jorn invited Constant to Alba, Piedmont, Italy, for a congress dedicated to 'Industry and the Fine Arts' initiated by 'Mouvement pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste' (

International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus The International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus was a small European avant-garde artistic tendency that arose out of the breakup of COBRA, and was initiated by contact between former COBRA members Asger Jorn and Enrico Baj and Sergio Dange ...

). At this congress Constant presented his lecture ''Demain la poésie logera la vie'' in which he pleaded for a free architecture which could stimulate a creative lifestyle rather than impede it.In 1952

Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situation ...

had founded the

Lettrist International The Letterist International (LI) was a Paris-based collective of radical artists and cultural theorists between 1952 and 1957. It was created by Guy Debord and Gil J. Wolman rejoined by Jean-Louis Brau and Serge Berna as a schism from Isido ...

for which he was a writer, filmmaker and strategic activist. The 'Lettrist International' were also at the Alba congress and they pleaded for a unitary urbanism (the synthesis of art and technology). Later that year Constant visited Debord in Alba, which proved to be an inspiration for both. Debord wanted to establish an even more radical movement which would totally abandon the arena of fine art while solely focusing on questions of

psychogeography Psychogeography is the exploration of urban environments that emphasizes interpersonal connections to places and arbitrary routes. It was developed by members of the Letterist International and Situationist International, which were revolutiona ...

, a total dissolution of boundaries between art and life. In 1957 he and Asger Jorn brought together the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus and the Lettrist International by establishing

Situationist International The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

. They specifically denied their status as an art movement.Libero Andreotti, Situacionistes, Situationists, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 1996 Constant did not join SI at that time. He objected to the SI on the ground that the movement seemed to be established mainly by artists who have their own interest at heart more than a common goal. When SI openly pleaded for ' unitary urbanism', as defined by Constant and Debord, Constant joined. An intensive correspondence between him and Debord followed. Constant wrote several theoretical articles for the French SI journal and staged events at several museums in Paris as well as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where he showed his ''New Babylon'' series in 1959. The success of the ''New Babylon'' show in 1959 prompted SI to plan a group exhibition there in April–May 1960. This exhibition would never take place. Disagreements in the group resulted in a split and several expulsions. In 1960 Constant left the group for the same reason he initially objected to joining. By 1961 no one remained of the original artistic core or tendency except Debord himself. though members more allied to the SI's political tendency remained.

New Babylon

Back in Amsterdam after his stay in London, Nieuwenhuys started to focus mainly on architecture and the urban environment. The focal point of his work was finding out what potential added value art can provide in intensifying daily life, in which there is room for creative expression. He abandoned painting to work solely on his New Babylon project from 1956 to 1974. With New Babylon Nieuwenhuys envisioned a "world wide city for the future" where land is owned collectively, work is fully automated and the need to work replaced with a nomadic life of creative play. New Babylon is inhabited by ''

homo ludens ''Homo Ludens'' is a book originally published in Dutch in 1938 by Dutch historian and cultural theorist Johan Huizinga. It discusses the importance of the play element of culture and society. Huizinga suggests that play is primary to and a nece ...

'', who, freed from labor, will not have to make art, for he can be creative in the daily practice of his life. In Nieuwenhuys' own words:

The project of New Babylon only intends to give the minimum conditions for a behaviour that must remain as free as possible. Any restriction of the freedom of movement, any limitation with regard to the creation of mood and atmosphere, has to be avoided. Everything has to remain possible, all is to happen, the environment has to be created by the activity of life, and not inversely.

The New Babylon project consisted of a series of models, constructions,

maquettes A ''maquette'' (French word for scale model, sometimes referred to by the Italian names ''plastico'' or ''modello'') is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', from the Italian word for "sketc ...

, collages, drawings, graphics and texts expressing Constant's theories of urban development and social interaction. A few examples of spatial constructions for which he used modern materials like stainless steel, aluminum and

perspex Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...

are ''Het Ruimtecircus'' (1956) (Spatial Circus) and ''Het Zonneschip'' (1956) (Sunvessel). In 1974 the New Babylon project officially came to an end with a large exhibition in the

Gemeentemuseum Den Haag The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...

. Because he lacked room to store the vast collection of constructions, maquettes, maps and structures he sold them all to the museum. In 1999 ''Constant's New Babylon: City for Another Life'', opened at the

Drawing Center The Drawing Center is a Manhattan, New York, museum and a nonprofit exhibition space that focuses on the exhibition of drawings, both historical and contemporary. History The Drawing Center was founded by former assistant curator of drawings at ...

in New York. It was his first solo exhibition in the United States and was curated by Mark Wigley. There was a symposium conducted in conjunction with the exhibition. According to the Dutch architect

Rem Koolhaas Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a re ...

, Nieuwenhuys has made a lot of architects think with his New Babylon: "He was an example of courage". Constant Nieuwenhuijs (1974)

Colorism

Constant returned to painting, watercoloring and graphics in 1969. Until the mid-1970s, the subjects of his imaginary world New Babylon still crowded his work. However, more and more, he was inspired by contemporary and political issues, including such things as the Vietnam War, African famine and Kosovo refugees. Marxism was a strong influence. Rudi Fuchs said in his foreword to the Catalogue of Constant Paintings in 1995: "there are people who consider Constant's later work as a return to tradition. I, however, do not share this opinion. Because I consider his later development from the 1970s as greater penetration into the garden of painting." In the tradition of the Venetian Renaissance painters,

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

and

Tintoretto Tintoretto ( , , ; born Jacopo Robusti; late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594) was an Italian painter identified with the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized the speed with ...

, Constant applied himself to the technique of colorism. Following this technique the artist doesn't make use of charcoal or pencil sketches but applies colour directly on the canvas with the paintbrush, constructing soft transitions instead of sharp contours. The most important feature of this technique is the way light is expressed in the painting by integrating it into the colour. This technique is laborious. The painting comes to life layer by layer. Constant painted with oil on canvas and every layer he applied then needed to dry. In this period Constant produced a mere three to four paintings per year.

Public space

In 1949 Constant decorated a garden wall in Tibirkelunde, Sjelland, Denmark. In 1963 ''The Gate of Constant'' was placed at the entry of a sports park in the west side of Amsterdam. Constant designed the forty-foot-high concrete structure as a commission for the

Municipality of Amsterdam The Government of Amsterdam consists of several territorial and functional forms of local and regional government. The principal form of government is the municipality of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The municipality's territory covers the city of Amster ...

. For almost three decades the structure adorned the entry in anonymity until Rita Doets, a former employee of the municipality, left money in her legacy to construct an information sign next to the gate. Constant's widow, Trudy Nieuwenhuijs, was present at the inauguration. In 1966 Constant designed a fountain for the Kooiplein in Leiden. For years the structure didn't function and slowly withered. When the square was redesigned in 1999, the fountain was repaired. New equipment made sure that the shoppers were not bothered by the water.

Death

Constant died on 1 August 2005 and was survived by his son and his three daughters, and by his widow and her daughter.

Films

''Gyromorphosis (1958), 7 min'' - In Gyromorphosis, film maker Hy Hirsh strives to display the kinetic qualities of the New Babylon structures of Constant Nieuwenhuys. One by one he puts parts of the structures in motion and films the details with colored lighting having them overlap each other, appear and disappear. He creates a sensation of acceleration and suspense suggested by the work itself. ''Accompanying Simon Vinkenoog to Constant's New Babylon (1962), 15 min'' -

Lies Westenburg Lies may refer to: * Lie, an untruthful statement * Lies (evidence), falsehoods in common law Geography * Lies, Hautes-Pyrénées, a commune in Occitanie region, France * Lies, Friesland, a village on the island of Terschelling, Friesland, the N ...

visits Constant at his studio with writer

Simon Vinkenoog Simon Vinkenoog (18 July 1928 – 12 July 2009) was a Dutch poet, spoken word poet and writer. He was the editor of the anthology ''Atonaal'' (Atonal), which launched the Dutch "Fifties Movement". In 2004 he was chosen as Dichter des Vaderland ...

. Simon Vinkenoog and Constant discuss the ideas behind the New Babylon project. ''Constant oder der Weg nach New Babylon (1968), 55 min'' - For ten years Constant worked on his ''New Babylon'' project as a reaction to the architectural and social reality. Film maker Carlheinz Caspari follows Constant and his visions. ''Cobra, a revolt against order (1986), 50 min'' - Documentary by

Jan Vrijman Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

about the meaning and influence of the COBRA group, then and now. ''Constant, Avant le Départ (2005), 82 min'' - Constant died in the summer of 2005. Thomas Doebele and Maarten Schmidt filmed the artist during the last months of his life. They followed him and his dog, Tikus, on their daily stroll to the artist's studio, where he finished his last painting ''Le Piège''. ''New Babylon de Constant (2005), 13 min'' - New Babylon visually captured by Constant's son Victor Nieuwenhuijs and Maartje Seyfert.

Exhibitions

This is an incomplete list of Constant's exhibitions over the years: * 1940 at the Aalderink art gallery in Amsterdam (together with Hans Wiesman, first exhibition for Constant) * 1947 Santee Landweer art gallery in Amsterdam (first solo exhibition for Constant) * 1953 ''For a spatial colorisme'' in the

Constant with Aldo van Eijck * 1956 XXVIII Esposizione Biennale Internazionale d'Arte,

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

* 1959 II.

Documenta ''documenta'' is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. The ''documenta'' was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultura ...

, Kassel * 1959 ''Constant. Constructions and models'' Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam * 1961 ''Niw (sic!) Babylon in the

Stedelijk Museum Schiedam The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

* 1964 4. Documenta, Kassel * 1964 Académie Royale, Kopenhagen * 1964–1965 '' '45-'85''

* 1966 ''New Babylon'' at the Biennale of Venice (Constant represented the Netherlands) * 1967 ''New Babylon'' in

Kunstnernes Hus Kunstnernes Hus (Norwegian for "Artists' House") is an art gallery in Oslo, Norway. It is Norway's largest gallery under the direction of artists, and has served as a major center for exhibits of Norwegian and international contemporary art. It i ...

, Oslo * 1974 ''New Babylon'',

* 1974–1975 ''Constant. An illustration of freedom rawings 1945-74', Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam * 1978 ''Constant. Paintings 1969-77'', Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam * 1980 ''Constant. Paintings 1940-1980'', Gemeentemuseum Den Haag * 1985 ''Work from the period 1975-1985'', Centraal Museum in Utrecht * 1985 ''Arbeiten auf Papier 1948-1985'', in Kultur-historischen Museum der Stadt Bielefeldt * 1986 ''Constant 1945-1983'',

Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn The Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, or LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn, is a museum in Bonn, Germany, run by the Rhineland Landscape Association. It is one of the oldest museums in the country. In 2003 it completed an extensive renovation. The museum has a n ...

* 1993 ''Constant. Drawings'', Gemeentemuseum Den Haag * 1994 ''Constant. Models / Constructions'', Gemeentemuseum Den Haag * 1994–1995 ''Constant. Œuvreprijs 1994'',

Chabot Museum The Chabot Museum () is a museum dedicated to the Dutch painter and sculptor Hendrik Chabot in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The museum is housed in a monumental villa in the Museumpark, near the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and the Netherlan ...

, Rotterdam * 1996 ''Constant: paintings 1948-1995'',

Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art is located in Aalborg, Denmark, on Kong Christians Allé near its junction with Vesterbro. Of a modern Scandinavian design, it was built between 1968 and 1972 by Finland, Finnish architects Elissa Aalto, Elissa and Al ...

Ålborg * 1997 ''Situacionistes. Art, politica, urbanisme'', Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) * 1998 ''Constant, etchings and lithographs'',

Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas The Museum of Fine Arts ( Spanish: ''Museo de Bellas Artes'' or MBA) is an art museum in Caracas, Venezuela. It was founded in 1917, and was originally housed in the building now known as the Palacio de las Academias. Its current buildings were ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

* 1998–1999 ''Constant - New Babylon'',

Witte de With (Centrum voor hedendaagse kunst) Witte Corneliszoon de With (28 March 1599 – 8 November 1658) was a Dutch naval officer who served during the Eighty Years' War and the First Anglo-Dutch War. Early life and childhood De With was born on a farmstead in the hamlet of Hoogen ...

, Rotterdam * 1999 ''Another City for Another Life: Constant's New Babylon'', The

, New York * 2001 ''Constant, une rétrospective'', Musée Picasso Antibes * 2002 ''Constant. New Babylon'', Documenta 11, Platform 5,

Kassel Hauptbahnhof Kassel Hauptbahnhof is a Deutsche Bahn railway station in the city of Kassel, in the German state of Hesse. Situated in the central borough of Mitte, it is the city's second important railway station after the opening of Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe in 1 ...

* 2004 ''Constant graphic'', Cobra Museum * 2005–2006 ''Tribute to Constant'', Gemeentemuseum Den Haag * 2006 ''Play! The art of play'', Cobra Museum * 2008–2009 ''Constant. In his studio'', Stedelijk Museum Schiedam * 2009 ''Time as Matter. MACBA collection. New Acquisitions'', Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona * 2009 ''Intensely Dutch'',

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

in Sydney, Australia * 2011 ''Klee und Cobra. Ein Kinderspiel'',

Zentrum Paul Klee The Zentrum Paul Klee is a museum dedicated to the artist Paul Klee, located in Bern, Switzerland and designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. It features about 40 percent of Paul Klee's entire pictorial oeuvre. In 1997, Livia Klee-Meyer, P ...

, Bern, Switzerland * 2012 ''Klee and Cobra. A Child's Play'', Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek and Cobra Museum

Public collections

Constant's artworks can be found in the following public collections. Dutch museums * Amsterdam Museum (formerly known as Amsterdam's Historical Museum) *

Bonnefanten Museum The Bonnefanten Museum is a museum of fine art in Maastricht, Netherlands. History The museum was founded in 1884 as the historical and archaeological museum of the Dutch province of Limburg. The name Bonnefanten Museum is derived from the Frenc ...

, Maastricht * Centraal Museum, Utrecht * Cobra Museum for modern art, Amstelveen *

* Groninger museum * Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo *

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located at ...

, Rotterdam *

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

–

Rijksprentenkabinet The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Ste ...

, Amsterdam *

Rijksmuseum Twenthe The Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede, the Netherlands, was founded in 1927 by textile industry Baron Jan Bernard Van Heek. He donated his own private collection and the museum building to the government, thus making it a national museum. The muse ...

, Enschede * Stadsgalerij Heerlen *

* Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven European museums *

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

, Musée National dʼart moderne, Paris, France * FRAC - le fonds régional dʼart contemporain et architecture de recherche - Orléans, France * Krefelder Kunstmusea, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Germany * Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum, Germany * Kunsthalle in Emden, Germany *

Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art is located in Aalborg, Denmark, on Kong Christians Allé near its junction with Vesterbro. Of a modern Scandinavian design, it was built between 1968 and 1972 by Finnish architects Elissa and Alvar Aalto and Danis ...

/Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Denmark * Lehmbruck-Museum,

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...

, Germany * MACBA, Spain * Museum Jorn, Silkeborg, Denmark *

Staatliche Museen The Berlin State Museums (german: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters, several research institutes, libraries, and supporting facilities. They are overseen ...

Neue Nationalgalerie The Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its ...

, Berlin, Germany *

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, London *

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

, London Museums outside Europe * MoAFL,

Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale The NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is an art museum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Originating in 1958 as the ''Fort Lauderdale Art Center'', the museum is now located in an modernist building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes. The current buildin ...

, US * SFMOMA,

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, US

Awards

This is a list of awards granted to Constant. * 1960 Sikkens Award (together with Aldo van Eyck) * 1966 Premio Cardazzo at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

* 1971 Royal decoration of '

Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau ( nl, Orde van Oranje-Nassau, links=no) is a civil and military Dutch honours system, Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open ...

' (refused) * 1974 David Röell Award for his work as a draughtsman * 1985 Singer Award for his entire body of work * 1991 Resistance Award of the Foundation Artist Resistance 1942-1945 * 1994 Oeuvre Award from Foundation Fund for Fine Arts, Design & Engineering

References

External links

website bij Constant's son and his film 'New Babylon de Constant', bio with photosmanagement foundation Stichting "Fondation Constant" with bio and photos
a situationist site
Constants works at Tate Galery
a situationist site {{DEFAULTSORT:Nieuwenhuys, Constant 1920 births 2005 deaths Painters from Amsterdam Situationists 20th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters Dutch contemporary artists