Helena van der Kraan-Maazel born Helena Jirina Mazl (14 June 1940 – 14 June 2020) was a Czechoslovakian-born Dutch photographer and partner in the artist duo
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
Czech Technical University in Prague
Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU, cs, České vysoké učení technické v Praze, ČVUT) is one of the largest university, universities in the Czech Republic with 8 faculties, and is one of the oldest institutes of technology in Centra ...
, where she studied architecture for a few years. She started working as window dresser and designer, and developed herself at night as a painter and graphic artist.
After the
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in
the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Sec ...
she decided to flee. In the Netherlands she continued her studies at Ateliers ’63, where she met her partner for live
Axel van der Kraan
Axel Erik van der Kraan (Rotterdam, 18 April 1949) is a Dutch sculptor, performance artist and graphic artist, also known with Helena van der Kraan as Axel and Helena van der Kraan.
Life and work
Van der Kraan was born and raised in Rotterdam. ...
. Afterwards they continued to work together as the artist duo
Axel en Helena van der Kraan
Axel en Helena van der Kraan were a sculptor-duo from the Netherlands, consisting of Axel van der Kraan (born 1949) and Helena van der Kraan-Maazel (1940–2020), active as sculptors and draftsman.Hendrik Chabot Award
The Hendrik Chabot Award (Dutch: ''Hendrik Chabot Prijs'') is an annual award for visual artists presented by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, section South Holland. The prize ceremony is in the city hall of Rotterdam, where the prize is given by T ...
. In 1990, at the
Museum Boymans 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 a ...
, there was a retrospective of their work with sculptures, drawings, and photography.
Helena van der Kraan-Maazel died 14 June 2020 (her 80th birthday) in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
from cancer. She was described as an artist, who "observed with a concerned look, who recorded her surroundings in noiseless portraits."
Work
Axel en Helena van der Kraan
The Dutch artist
Axel van der Kraan
Axel Erik van der Kraan (Rotterdam, 18 April 1949) is a Dutch sculptor, performance artist and graphic artist, also known with Helena van der Kraan as Axel and Helena van der Kraan.
Life and work
Van der Kraan was born and raised in Rotterdam. ...
had started as sculptor, and together they continued to make sculptures and installation art. Helena took it upon her to document these art projects in projects in photographs. This evolved into her own photographic art projects involving still life and portraits of people.
Series
Helena van der Kraan created a number of remarkable series of portraits. In 1986 with the series ''Medewerkers'' (Staf Members) she took the picture of eighty employees of the Haags Gemeentemuseum, nowadays
Kunstmuseum 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 ...
.
In 1995 she pictured the 75 members of the Dutch
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, the upper house of the States General, the legislature of the Netherlands. In those days the ties where prominent attributes. The Members of the Senate, all with ties in the pictures, often looked a "little nervous."
''The Artdealers''
Another of her more famous work was the picture called ''The Art dealers'' as Toef Jaeger (2020) describes it:
:''".... two men at a sink; one looks concentrated at a photo. He is clearly going to take his time, in his casual pose one foot is slightly back. In order not to balance, he leans his shoulder against the wall. The other man awaits judgment on the photo. There is a folder on the sink in front of them. No idea what else is in the folder, but based on the title you expect it to be more photos.''
:''The great thing is not only that two observing men are observed here, but it is also the suggestion that the photo makes. It's about art, but why does it have to be at a washbasin at public toilets? And what is in the photo? If the art has to be exchanged in this way, it is either something that is not for everyone's eyes, or the volatility of selling a work of art has become something that you do right after washing your hands."''
The ''Bear and Teddy'' project
In her youth Helena van der Kraan had a special relation her
teddy bear
A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy bear, ...
, which at young age she had named ''Bebbeba.'' She left him behind when she fled, but was reunited later on.
Later on in life she started photographing teddy bears similar to the way she had portrayed people. Over the years she photographed over two hundred teddy bears, who sometimes "appear proud and self-assured, sometimes fearful and melancholy, but they are always dignified." The teddy bears were often portrayed naked, sometimes wearing a worn jacket.
Exhibitions, a selection
* 1985. ''La Grande Parade,'' Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
* 1986. ''Bezielde fotografie,'' Haagse Gemeentemuseum.
* 1996. ''Helena van der Kraan: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.''
* 2005. Fotomuseum Den Haag.Helena van der Kraan Fotomuseum Den Haag. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
* 2020. ''Bear and Teddy,''
Fotomuseum Den Haag
The Fotomuseum Den Haag (The Hague Museum of Photography) is a museum in the field of photography in The Hague. The museum was founded in 2002 as part of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag and works closely with the Print Room of the Leiden University Librar ...
Publications
* Helena van der Kraan, Kees Broos, ''Van der Kraan,'' Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, 1978.
* L. W. H. Dijk. ''Helena van der Kraan: Museum Boijmans. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 1996.
*
Wim van Sinderen
Wim van Sinderen (born 10 January 1958) is a Dutch journalist and curator, working as photography curator at the Fotomuseum Den Haag.
Live and work
Van Sinderen was born in Dokkum on January 10, 1958. From 1976 to 1982 he attended the Teacher T ...
(ed.), Donald Mader (transl.) ''Helena van der Kraan.'' The Hague Museum of Photography, Den Haag : Terra, 2005. .
* Helena van der Kraan. ''Portretten/Portraits,'' Van Zoetendaal Publishers, 2020. .