Constant Nieuwenhuys

Dutch painter, printmaker and writer. He studied for a year at the Kunstnijverheidschool (1938) and then at the State Academy (1939–42), both in Amsterdam. His work was initially conventional in style and included religious subjects. From 1941, however, he became deeply interested in the work of Cézanne, Cubism and German Expressionism, all of which he learnt of through books. A few of his surviving works from 1945 and 1946, such as Still-life with Bottle (1945; Amsterdam, Stedel. Mus.), exhibit these influences. During this period he also developed theories concerning art and society, inspired by Marxism.

We are the living symbols of a world without frontiers, a world of freedom, without weapons, where each may travel without let or hindrance from the steppes of central Asia to the Atlantic Coast, from the high plateau of South Africa to the forests of Finland…

Paintings and photographs