Hendrika (Riekje) Swart (1 August 1923 in
George Town, Penang
)
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, map_caption = Location of George Town in Penang
, pushpin_map = Penang#Malaysia#Asia#Earth
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, Malaysia – 27 September 2008 in
Amsterdam) was a Dutch gallery owner of
Gallery Swart in Amsterdam from 1964 until 2000. She was awarded the
Benno Premsela Prize The Benno Premsela Prize is a former Dutch design prize, awarded every two years from 2000 to 2012 by the Mondriaan Fonds to a person who has played a stimulating role in the field of visual arts, design or architecture. The prize is named after de ...
in 2002 for her contribution to the development of
visual arts in the Netherlands.
Biography
Youth, education and early career
Riekje Swart was born in
George Town, Penang
)
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, image_map =
, map_caption = Location of George Town in Penang
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, in Malaysia, as the daughter of Karel Swart (1891–1965),
sea captain
A sea captain, ship's captain, captain, master, or shipmaster, is a high-grade licensed mariner who holds ultimate command and responsibility of a merchant vessel.Aragon and Messner, 2001, p.3. The captain is responsible for the safe and efficie ...
at the
Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij and Anna Barbara Drabbe (1891–1986), a
nurse in those days. After moving around with her family they settled in 1934, where she attended the
gymnasium.
[Pauline Micheels,]
Swart, Hendrika
, in: ''Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland'', 09/01/2018.
After the
German bombing of Rotterdam the family moved to
Laren, North Holland, where she finished high school. After the war she studied law at the University of Amsterdam, receiving her bachelor's degree but failing for her master's degree.
In the 1950s Swart was head of staff at a bank for years. During her studies she had read literature a lot and had visited theater. The 1949
COBRA exhibition triggered her interest in contemporary art and the protest movement of the artists, and by the end of the 1950s she turned her career around.
Gallery Swart
Early 1960s Swart started as assistant in one of the few galleries in Amsterdam. From her savings in 1964 she started her own gallery. Inspired by
Willem Sandberg she wanted art and artists to be contemporary and groundbreaking.
Over the years Swart promoted multiple new art movements. She started in the late 1960s with the work of abstract-geometrical Dutch artists, such as
Ad Dekkers and
Peter Struycken
Peter Struycken (born 5 January 1939 in The Hague) is a Dutch artist, and the brother of actor Carel Struycken. He won the 2012 Heineken Prize for Arts from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Royal Netherlands Academy of ...
, supplemented with
conceptual artists such as
Ger van Elk
Ger van Elk (9 March 1941 – 17 August 2014) was a Dutch artist who created sculptures, painted photographs, installations and film. His work has been described as being both conceptual art and arte povera. Between 1959 and 1988 he lived and wo ...
en
Jan Dibbets and foreign colleagues.
In 1970 she promoted this type of art as systemic constructivism and
computer art.
In the 1970s she promoted the young
Figuration Libre Figuration Libre ("Free Figuration") is a French art movement which began in the 1980s. It is the French equivalent of Bad Painting and Neo-expressionism in America and Europe, Junge Wilde in Germany and Transvanguardia in Italy. Artists in the mo ...
artists, which, however, due to their big success, became too commercial for her soon after. In the 1980s and 1990s again she adopted new groups of artists, and promoted their work for some time. Suffering from bad health, she closed the gallery in the 2000. For her lasting contribution to the visual arts she was awarded the
Benno Premsela Prize The Benno Premsela Prize is a former Dutch design prize, awarded every two years from 2000 to 2012 by the Mondriaan Fonds to a person who has played a stimulating role in the field of visual arts, design or architecture. The prize is named after de ...
in 2002.
Reception
In an obituary in the ''
de Volkskrant
''de Volkskrant'' (; ''The People's Paper'') is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000.
Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium-sized c ...
'' three days after her death in 2008, Riekje Swart was remembered as "the queen mother of the Dutch gallery world, the mentor of collectors, the tireless fan of art that leads the way."
[Marina de Vries. "Riekje Swart: Onvermoeibare fan van avant-gardekunst," ''de Volkskrant,'' 30 september 2008.]
References
External links
De klare taal van Bob Bonies, Ad Dekkers en galeriehoudster Riekje Swartat michielmorel.nl, 2012.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swart, Riekje
1923 births
2008 deaths
Dutch art dealers
Art collectors from Amsterdam