PINK de Thierry (born Helena Scheerder, 1943) is a Dutch visual artist known for her meta-

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 ...

projects, which included 100 days of living in a painting (''At Home'', 1984), 30 days of traveling in the US as a performance-art project in 1988, daily entering Arcadia for 60 days in Germany with ''Et in Arcadia Ego Sum'' in 1990–91 and leading the Royal Netherlands Army in constructing ''Checkpoint to Dutch Arcadia'' in 1994. Since 1995, she has created a series of works entitled ''Letters from Arcadia''.

Early years

Belgium, 1963–1971

PINK, began her career as a stage and film actress in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

under the name of Helen Pinck and o
Helen Pink
She trained with the experimental

Living Theatre The Living Theatre is an American theatre company founded in 1947 and based in New York City. It is the oldest experimental theatre group in the United States. For most of its history it was led by its founders, actress Judith Malina and painter/po ...

when it presented ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ...

'' in Brussels,

Jerzy Grotowski Jerzy Marian Grotowski (; 11 August 1933 – 14 January 1999) was a Polish theatre director and theorist whose innovative approaches to acting, training and theatrical production have significantly influenced theatre today. He was born in Rzesz ...

's protégé André Desrameaux and Yoshi Oida at

Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Sha ...

's International Centre for Theatre Research in Paris. During her time in Brussels PINK was influenced by designer-artist Raphaël Opstaele, poet Marcel van Maele, poet and visual artist

Marcel Broodthaers Marcel Broodthaers (28 January 1924 – 28 January 1976) was a Belgian poet, filmmaker, and visual artist with a highly literate and often witty approach to creating art works. In 1943-1951 he was a member of a Communist party. Life and career ...

(in whose vernissage of his
Musée d'Art Moderne, Département les Aigles
' she participated at his home in Brussels in 1968) and architect Jef de Groote. In the autumn of 1968, the Laboratory of Theatrical Research at Louvain University commissioned André Desrameaux and PINK to create an experimental theatre piece. The resulting performance, ''Erektion'',Leclercq, Catherine & Devillez, Virginie (eds.) ''MASS MOVING – un aspect de l'art contemporain en Belgique – '' Éditions Labor, Brussels 2004 (FR). used text and vocalization by actors on a multi-level, wire-mesh stage over the audience. ''Erektion'' began a new art group, Mass Moving, which focused on art in public spaces. Participating in a performance artwork by

James Lee Byars James Lee Byars (April 10, 1932, Detroit, Michigan – May 23, 1997, Cairo, Egypt) was an American conceptual artist and performance artist specializing in installations and sculptures, as well as a self-considered mystic. He was best known for h ...

in the Wide White Space Gallery (Antwerp) in 1969 moved PINK toward the visual arts. Utrecht cultural deputy Jan Juffermans commissioned PINK, Opstaele and De Groote (who became Mass Moving) to create an outdoor event in the city center. The result, ''Motion'' (1969), was Mass Moving's first

art intervention Art intervention is an interaction with a previously existing artwork, audience, venue/space or situation. It has the auspice of conceptual art and is commonly a form of performance art. It is associated with the Viennese Actionists, the Dada mov ...

in an outdoor public space. A number of art-intervention projects on the scale of city life were created in public spaces in Europe, Africa and Japan. In January 1976, at the end of the ''Sound Stream'' project, Mass Moving disbanded.

Travels and return to the Netherlands, 1972–1980

After Mass Moving's ''Ludic Environment Machine (L.E.M.)'' project for the ''Sonsbeek Buiten De Perken'' outdoor art festival in

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both ban ...

and the ''Butterfly Project'' (

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 ...

, 1972), PINK left Mass Moving and settled in the Netherlands. From 1972 to 1980, she worked on performance works with and for postgraduate students and professionals in a number of fields. During this period the artist traveled to West Africa to research local rituals, studied Japanese theater with Yoshi Oida at

's ''Centre International de Recherche Théâtrale'' in Paris and witnessed ancient rituals by Motohisa Yamakage in Japan.

Performance art

''L'Art du Bonheur:'' Man Woman Child series, 1980–1990

From 1980 to 1995 PINK created a number of intervention-based meta-performance-art projects and, consequently, her handling of performance art is well revealed in the talk she has held in 2011 about the genesis of her performance-installation artwork "Ter Zake. Business as Usual, USA 1988". in which an iconic human unit, Man Woman Child (MWC), was used as a metaphor for humanity's cultural

transference Transference (german: Übertragung) is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which the "feelings, attitudes, or desires" a person had about one thing are subconsciously projected onto the here-and-now Other. It usually concerns feelings from a ...

. For each project, PINK explored a theme with a mixture of public-space art intervention and performance,

installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian li ...

, photo and

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

. Large, official royal-portrait photographs remain from the exhibit. In 1981's ''East West Home Is Best'' MWC lived for 30 days in a specially built, fully furnished suburban apartment inside a

Holland Festival The Holland Festival () is the oldest and largest performing arts festival in the Netherlands. It takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theatre, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and archit ...

art exhibition in Amsterdam, where 30,000 visitors filed through as MWC lived their lives.Snoep, Derk P. and Perrée, Rob (ed.) ''PINK WORKS'' (EN) Editions d'Art PAP, Amsterdam 1988Exhibition catalog "Kitsch uit de Kunst", p. 35. Holland Festival 1981. Description of the artwork and Pink interviewing her heteronym, Mrs de Koning ''VideoSketchBook'' (1983) found MWC living one day apiece in 12 row houses on a 1930s street in a provincial capital. PINK adapted this performance piece into a video installation of 12 photo and 13 film portraitsPerrée, Rob (1983) "DE PEEPSHOW VAN PINK" ''De Groene Amsterdammer'' journal nr.30 p.17 at Frans Hals Museum Haarlem,Ruler, Dick van (1984). "MAAR WAT ZIE JE DAAR NU EIGENLIJK?" catalogus Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem Vleeshal Middelburg, MMK-Arnhem,Oele, Anneke & Brandt Corstius, Liesbeth. ''VIJF JAAR AANWINSTEN HEDENDAAGSE KUNST 1984–1989'' MMK-Arnhem 1989. Alkema, Joke PINK in ''FAM.'' catalog MMK Arnhem 2004Westen, Miriam. Exhibition catalog Museum Arnhem (NL), 2015: Spiegeloog. Het zelfportret in de Nederlandse kunst 1900 - 2015. Waanders, 2015. ISBN 9789462620711 SALA I Roma,Crisafulli, Fabrizio (February 1994) "PINK" ''JULIET'' Vol.XV nr.66 p.46 (IT), Italy < Fotofeis Edinburgh, and Galerija Klovic Zagreb.Perrée, Rob (February 1989) "PERFORMANCE IN DE JAREN TACHTIG – PINK geeft glans aan het alledaagse -" ''KUNSTBEELD'' Vol.13 nr.2 p.50 ff. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam acquired in her KOG collection the complete video-installation with the 12 original photoprints from 1983 which was celebrated December 17, 2018 with a KOG lecture by prof. dr. Erik de Jong on Videosketchbook 1983: The Ritual of Hominess. ''At Home'' (1984) considered MWC the ideal family in Haarlem, Bergen and Middelburg (Frans Hals Museum Haarlem, KCB Bergen. Vleeshal Middelburg.Jong, Erik de & Dominicus-van Soest, Marleen. "PINK" ''AARDSE PARADIJZEN''. Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem & Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede 1999 pp. 138, 246. Oosthoek, Andreas ''DE GENTSE COLLECTIE'' catalog. Bureau Culturele Zaken, Middelburg 1984'' Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant'' 28 July 1984. "EEN DROOMHUIS OP HET ABDIJPLEIN"), which hosted them for 100 days in their city centers in an ideal garden against a backdrop of a full-scale painting of an ideal house (sleeping in a camper bus behind the 100-m² exhibit). ''Tea Time'' (1986) was a

VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more ...

television project in which MWC explored the ritual of a filmed tea party, a

conversation piece A conversation piece refers to a group portrait in a domestic or landscape setting depicting persons chatting or otherwise socializing with each other.Turner, Jonathan (February 1991) "TEATIME WITH PINK" ''ARTnews'' Vol.90 nr.2 p.13 ff. (EN) USA ''HouseRites in Crystal Museum'' (1987) revealed humankind's affectionate and possessive relationship with personal objects at home, set in the context of museum-art conservation. Dutch National Arts Council. In ''Ter Zake. Business as Usual. USA 1988'', a government-sponsored orientation trip to the United States turned into a 30-day performance artwork. MOCA, Los Angeles and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. In ''Standing Stone'' (1989), with an ice-age boulder their only luggage MWC walked to the intersection of the Saalien lateral moraine and the actual North Sea coast. The travelers (and their -ton luggage) stayed overnight at the Haarlem Frans Halsmuseum. When they arrived at their destination the following day MWC stood, motionless, on top of the boulder.Erftemeijer, Antoon. ''Slapen in het Museum'' 100 JAAR FRANS HALS MUSEUM, Jubileumboek Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2013 p. 202 The boulder is on exhibit in front of PINK's former studio at Overtoom nr. 16 in Amsterdam. In ''Electronic Painting'' at the 1990 "Tomorrow is Yesterday" exhibition at Museum Het Prinsenhof in Delft, a white-gloved chief curator replaced a painting of the Holy Family (c. 1500, unknown master) by a beautifully framed photo of MWC at their 1989 overnight stay in the Frans Hals Museum. A video of the Holy Family painting was shown on a monitor in an open safe; after visiting hours, the safe was locked."Pink" ''MORGEN IS GISTEREN'' catalog. Kultus, Delft 1990 p.44 ff.

Entering Arcadia, 1990–1995

In 1990–91's ''Et in Arcadia Ego Sum'', a smartly-dressed MWC entered Arcadia daily for two months. Arcadia was a large room with a half-open door in the center, bordered by four enlarged (50 x) Lego-type trees and flowers, in Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn and Kunsthaus Hamburg respectively.Honnef, Klaus; Donker Duyvis, Paul; Rodrigo, Evert, et al ''Et in Arcadia Ego Sum'' in ''SCHRÄG'' catalog exhibition. Edition Braus, Heidelberg 1990 (DE), Germany In 1992's ''Direction Arcadia'', under a road sign pointing to ''アルカヂア'' (Arcadia) MWC stranded with luggage at a crowded intersection in

Shinjuku, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world (Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration ...

. The installation artwork ''Bateaux pour l'Arcadie III'', featuring a ferry carrying the ashes of PINK's studio works, some other leftovers and a safe with an eternal flame, was exhibited at the Van Reekum Museum (presently Coda Art Museum) in Apeldoorn in 1993 and in the Vleeshal of the Frans Halsmuseum in 1998.Becht, Frits & Bless, Frits ''PAPIER PER SE'' exhibition catalog Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn 1993 p.32 ff. (NE/EN) ''Checkpoint to Dutch Arcadia'' (1994) was a performance-art project in which PINK commanded the Royal Netherlands Army in a two-week campaign to close a portion of a -long, century-old dike built to withstand any future attack on Amsterdam. With 200 truckloads of sand and 30,000 sandbags, the Royal Engineers and Infantry (led by PINK) filled the opening. At noon daily, PINK addressed the men about the artwork and its purpose. An official road sign said "Welcome to Dutch Arcadia" and "See You Again in Arcadia" in the languages of occupiers of the Netherlands (now EU member states) and immigrants expelled from the Netherlands during the 1990s.

More art

Beyond Language: Letters from Arcadia (since 1995)

As PINK was struck by the impossibility of expressing essentials in words, she started scripting her stories in disordered alphabets on canvas. Her paintings ''Letters from Arcadia'' (ongoing) are in fountain pen on canvas or

palimpsest In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin an ...

.Snoep, Derk P. & Perrée, Rob. ''BRIEVEN uit ARCADIA'', catalogus Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 1998 ''Letters to Family'', an ongoing cycle of art works and installations, are communications with those PINK regards as close relatives and soulmates who live on in museums and libraries (such as Samuel Beckett,

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...

Velimir Khlebnikov Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov, better known by the pen name Velimir Khlebnikov ( rus, Велими́р Хле́бников, p=vʲɪlʲɪˈmʲir ˈxlʲɛbnʲɪkəf; – 28 June 1922) was a Russian poet and playwright, a central part of th ...

Louis-Ferdinand Céline Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( , ) was a French novelist, polemicist and physician. His first novel ''Journey to the End of the Night'' (1932) won the '' Pr ...

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

Piet Mondriaan Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being o ...

, Kazimir Malevich,

, Alberto Giacometti and The Unknown Artist). ''Letters from the Ferryman'' (2001) is a series of double portraits of strangers (painted and written). ''Encyclopedia Arcadia'' (begun 2001) is a series of books: Passions, Scripts, Prayers, Alchemy, Scriptures, Omens, Scores, Discoveries, Torn Mirages and Inventories. ''Blanchir l'Histoire'' (2002–2007) is a cycle of eight paintings, each, in which PINK explores the roots of the written word from Sumerian to Hebrew.Roos, Robbert (November 2005) "ARCADISCH – Blanchir l'Histoire -" ''KUNSTBEELD'' Vol.29 nr.11 p.36 ff. In ''LOT of PINK'' (2007), the artist explores "lot" in a project where people buy a numbered artwork derived from ''Standing Stone'' with the possibility of winning a second work.Jongenelen, Sandra (February 2007) "LOT van PINK" ''KUNSTBEELD'' Vol.32 nr.2 p.19 ''Satellite View on Arcadia'' (begun 2008) is a series of collage paintings, with torn, thin blotting paper fixed on canvas with oil paint.

Since 2010: Data Processing in art and thence

''Documented Documents'' (2010–2011) is an overview of her oeuvre, a series of 120 collage works on paper from leftovers out of her archives with text comments in her handwritings. ''Portrait of Ernst Gombrich – Où est l'Original, d'après MB -'' (2011–2012) is a series of collage paintings exploring the original and its copy, based on

Ernst Gombrich Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich (; ; 30 March 1909 – 3 November 2001) was an Austrian-born art historian who, after settling in England in 1936, became a naturalised British citizen in 1947 and spent most of his working life in the United Kin ...

's Story of Art. ''Torn Mirages'' (2012–2013) are collage works on paper consisting of torn (former) drawings with text references. ''Inventories'', Part X of the series ''Encyclopaedia Arcadia'' is finished in 2013; 40 graphic samples of lists meet torn images from Gombrich's historic art overview. ''Data Parade'' (2014-2015) is a series of 24 paintings dealing with the increased use of processed data in numbers, graphics and lists determinant in articles, views and opinions in all media. PINK recreates her life and work in ''Bio-Graphics'' (2016-2017), a series of 74 drawings in graphic text on paper.

Museum exhibitions

*Vleeshal, Middelburg 1983 (solo) ''VideoSketchBook'' (solo) *Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 1984 ''VideoSketchBook'' & ''At Home'', 1989 ''Back At Home'', 1998 ''Nieuw Werk van PINK'' (all solo) *Museum Moderne Kunst, Arnhem 1986 and 1989 ''VideoSketchBook'', 2004 ''VideoSketchBook'', 2015 ''VideoSketchBook'' *Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1989 ''PINK WORKS 1981 - 1988'' (solo) *LVR-LandesMuseum, Bonn 1990 ''Et in Arcadia Ego Sum'' in: "Schräg" *Kunsthaus, Hamburg 1991 ''Et in Arcadia Ego Sum'' in: "Schräg" *CODA Museum, Apeldoorn 1993 ''Bateaux pour l'Arcadie III'' in: "Papier Persé"

Performance projects

*Holland Festival, Amsterdam 1981 ''East West Home is Best'' in: "Kitsch uit de Kunst" *Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 1984 ''At Home'' & ''VideoSketchBook'', 1989, ''Standing Stone'' (overnight stay) *KCB, Bergen 1984 ''At Home'' *Vleeshal, Middelburg 1984 ''At Home'' in: "De Gentse Collectie" *VPRO Dutch broadcasting company 1986 ''TeaTime'' *Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles 1988 ''Ter Zake. Business as Usual. USA 1988'' *Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1989 ''Ter Zake. Business as Usual. USA 1988'' (first unrolling in Europe) in: "PINK WORKS" *Museum Het Prinsenhof, Delft 1990 ''Electronic Painting'' in: "To-Morrow is Yesterday" *Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn 1990 ''Et in Arcadia Ego Sum'' in: "Schräg" *Kunsthaus, Hamburg 1991 ''Et in Arcadia Ego Sum'' in: "Schräg" *Hoofddorp, Stelling van Amsterdam 1994, Royal Netherlands Army, ''Checkpoint to Dutch Arcadia'' in: "Doorbroken Lijn"

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

* * * *
PINK de Thierry
at the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

database {{DEFAULTSORT:Thierry, Pink de 1943 births Living people Dutch conceptual artists Dutch contemporary artists Dutch performance artists Artists from Haarlem