Hutschemakers Sjef

Sjef Hutschemakers was a Dutch artist, born in Banholt/Netherlands in 1931 and died in Sint-Geertruid/Netherlands in 2017. He was a painter, graphic artist and sculptor. He was educated at the art academy in Maastricht and later at the Jan van Eyck academy, under the supervision of Jaap Min. In 1963 he moves to Amsterdam for a year. He then goes to live and work in Eijsden/the Netherlands, does folk theater there, directs chariot games and experiments with works of art in collages of different materials and relief works. In 1974 Sjef moves to Sint Geertruid/The Netherlands, where he reconnects with the earth and starts painting in oils again. He develops his own form of expressionism. Not l'art pour l'art, not art for art's sake, but intelligible work that can move the viewer: sowers and reapers, planters and bean peelers, syrup distillers and pear pickers, but also in still lifes with rotting pears, often in the yellow and brown colors of the earth. Every year, Sjef makes designs full of humor and self-mockery for the carnival parades in his native village, and in 1999 he even designed the grand historical parade for the celebration of 950 years of papal consecration in Voerendaal. On the occasion of his 70th birthday, a major retrospective of this remarkable artist will be held in art dealership Rococo in the Piramide van Gulden. This is accompanied by a beautifully illustrated book about his life and work: 'Sjef Hutschemakers, rituals of the return'. (www.stichtingsjefhutsch.nl, RKD)