Paul Panhuysen (21 August 1934 – 29 January 2015) was a Dutch
composer, visual and
sound artist
Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...
. He founded and directed
Het Apollohuis
''Het Apollohuis'' ( en, The Apollo House) was a space for experimental music and visual arts, "focused in particular on...sound art, new music, performance art and the new media," founded in Eindhoven, Netherlands, by Remko Scha and Paul Panhuyse ...
, an art space that functioned during the 80's and 90's having artists doing
sound installations
Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound a ...
,
sound sculpture
Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound ar ...
s, and concerts about
free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician(s) involved. The term can refer to both a technique (employed by any musician in any genre) and as a recognizable genre in its ...
,
experimental music, and
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...
.
Personal life
Panhuysen was born in
Borgharen. He first followed Monumental and Autonomous Art Studies at the Jan van Eyck Academy in
Maastricht
Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...
(1954–1959), and then followed Sociology of Art Studies at the
University of Utrecht
Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...
(1957–1961). Defined as artist, musician, curator, art sociologist and art theoretician, his artistic interests were first inclined towards
Abstract Expressionism (until 1964),
Minimal art
Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or co ...
(until 1966) and then
Performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
(until nowadays).
Panhuysen’s production is greatly multifaceted though the goal remains contributing to improve the daily life of people. Marked by this social motivation, he organised several events such as the “Road Block” in Veendam (1970) to allow children to play safely at the street. In addition to this, he became Director of the Art School Vredeman de Vries, Leeuwarden (1962–1964) with a focus on raising the quality of education. The social recognition of his work was manifested with the prizes Mention of Honnor, Prix Europe de peinture, Oostende (1962) and Frisiana Award, Leeuwarden (1963), as well as with the job appointments at the Municipal Museum
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
as member of educational staff (1966) and at the
Van Abbemuseum
The Van Abbemuseum () is a museum of modern and contemporary art in central Eindhoven, Netherlands, on the east bank of the Dommel River. Established in 1936, the museum is named after its founder, Henri van Abbe, who loved modern art and wante ...
Eindhoven in charge of the Educational and Public Relations Department (1966–1967).
![Lublin Open City Instalacja Panhuysen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Lublin_Open_City_Instalacja_Panhuysen.JPG)
Social engagement and experimental art were developed under several ways. Panhuysen founded the ' (''De Bende van de Blauwe Hand'') (from 1965), and organized the ''Museumfeest'' (''Museumparty'', 1967) at the
Van Abbemuseum
The Van Abbemuseum () is a museum of modern and contemporary art in central Eindhoven, Netherlands, on the east bank of the Dommel River. Established in 1936, the museum is named after its founder, Henri van Abbe, who loved modern art and wante ...
with a record of 1.200 visitors. Then he set up the “Free Community of the Global City of Peace and Pleasure” (1967-8), and the “Maciunas Ensemble” (1968-), and from 1980 until 2001 he founded and directed the aforementioned Het Apollohuis, in Eindhoven.
He was a member of the Board of the Federation of Artists Associations (BBK), and founder of the artists unions: OBK and VBBKZN (1969–1981). As an artist-in-residence, he has stayed at the
Exploratorium,
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, USA (1993), at the Yellow Springs Institute, Chester Springs, USA (1994), and at the Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, Aomori,
Japan (2002). The artist has lately received the Noord-Brabant Cultural Award (1996), Award best exhibition, Galerie Klatovy/Klenová (2000) and Honorary Mention, Prix Ars Electronica, Linz (2004). Paul Panhuysen was invested Companion of the
Order of the Netherlands Lion
The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands ( nl, De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw, french: L'Ordre du Lion Néerlandais) is a Dutch order of chivalry founded by King William I of the Netherlands on ...
in 1998.
The most known sound installations of this artist were made with strings, crossing the spaces in different ways, and later played by the artist putting rosing in his fingers and using them as a sort of violin bow.
He has released several albums, including:
*Paul Panhuysen and the Galvanos: ''Lost for Words'', in which various recordings are input into several
galvanometer
A galvanometer is an electromechanical measuring instrument for electric current. Early galvanometers were uncalibrated, but improved versions, called ammeters, were calibrated and could measure the flow of current more precisely.
A galvan ...
s, attached to which are metal springs which vibrate more readily at some frequencies over others, and these frequencies are then reamplified.
*Paul Panhuysen: ''Partitas for Long Strings'', which is from the long string installations which Panhuysen has been doing for quite a while.
Maciunas Ensemble, named after
George Maciunas
George Maciunas (; lt, Jurgis Mačiūnas; November 8, 1931 – May 9, 1978) was a Lithuanian American artist, born in Kaunas. A founding member and the central coordinator of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers ...
of
Fluxus
Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...
fame, was an ensemble founded in 1968 by Paul Panhuysen,
Remko Scha Remko Jan Hendrik Scha (15 September 1945 – 9 November 2015) was a professor of computational linguistics at the faculty of humanities and Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam. He made important contributio ...
and
Jan van Riet. Scha left the ensemble in 1982. In 2012 a set of eleven CDs was released of the early years. He has also worked with
Arnold Dreyblatt
Arnold Dreyblatt (born 1953) is an American composer, performance artist and visual artist.
Biography
Arnold Dreyblatt was born in 1953 in New York City. His mother, Lucille Wallenrod (1918–1998), was a painter.
He started his studies at W ...
and
Ellen Fullman.
Panhuysen died on 29 January 2015 at the age of 80.
Bibliography
*Kuijper, J.A. ''Paul Panhuysen: Long Strings 1982-2011'', Eindhoven: Apollohuis, 2012
*
Paul Panhuysen - The Game & the Rules', Dijon,
Les presses du réel, 2009.
*Jacobs, P.M.J.E. ''Beeldend Nederland: biografisch handboek'', Tilburg: P.M.J. Jacobs, 1993.
*Veenstra, Irene. ''My home is your home'', Heerlen, Stadsgalerij Heerlen, 1993
*''Installationen''
ndersen, Panhuysen, Goedhart, Parlevliet, Dreyblatt Dortmund, Theater-Galerie Fletch Bizzel, 1989
*Panhuysen, Paul; Goedhart, Johan. ''Snareninstallaties'', Eindhoven, Apollohuis, 1985
*Panhuysen, Paul. ''Metamorphosen: een bewerking van de serie schilderijen: ‘alea iacta sit’'', met behulp van fotografie en fotokopie, Eindhoven: Apollohuis, 1982
*''Paul Panhuysen: schilderijen, situasies, ordeningssystemen en omgevingsontwerpen – 1960-1978'', Eindhoven, Van Abbemuseum, 1978
*''Schilderijen van Paul Panhuysen naar aanleiding van gedichten van Michael Tophoff'', Leeuwaarden, Maatschappij ter bevordering van Schilder- en Teekenkunst in Friesland, 1963
Discography
* Maciunas Ensemble – The Archives Part 1, 1968-1980 (11× CD, Compilation, 2012, Apollo Records (8) – ACD 091220-091230)
* Maciunas Ensemble – 1976 (2015 LP, Edition Telemark – 314.07)
References
External links
*
Paul Panhuysen at Play BKR Eindhovenby
Paul DeMarinis
Paul DeMarinis (1948) is an American visual and sound artist, specializing in electronic music composer, sound, performance, and computer-based artist. Since the 1970s he has been active in creating digital sound sculptures, one of the early inn ...
1998
{{DEFAULTSORT:Panhuysen, Paul
1934 births
2015 deaths
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
Dutch male classical composers
Dutch classical composers
People from Maastricht
20th-century Dutch male musicians
21st-century male musicians