“Getekend Anne” by Anne Verhoijsen
September 20 – November 2, 2024The Green Room
Entrance at The Frozen Fountain
Prinsengracht 645
Amsterdam
THE GRAND OPENING
Book Presentation + Exhibition
Friday, September 20th, from 5:00 – 7:30 PM
Opening Speech by Maze de Boer
Special thanks to Nina Folkersma, Kees Keijer, and Jos Houweling for their essays in the book.
The Green Room is ready to PLAY! With pig-like noses, straw-like hair, and chicken fingers, Anne Verhoijsen uses her bold and honest style to capture the lively imagination of a child. Her drawings, featured in her new book Getekend Anne (‘Drawing Anne’), are a mix of figures, faces, and forms that have a humorous and adventurous feel, including some ceramics.
Anne Verhoijsen started drawing with enthusiasm and a childlike innocence. At first, she was hesitant to get involved in art because she worried about expectations and her own skills. But she eventually embraced the idea of drawing without overthinking it, simply picking up a pencil and drawing.
The Green Room features Anne’s portraits, showing characters and relationships in a free, unrestricted way. Her drawings include men, women, and fictional figures in a lively mix of colors, dots, and shapes. Her work is full of life and spontaneity, creating a playful and carefree feeling.
Anne’s figures sometimes appear in acrobatic poses, face-to-face, or in proud displays. Her subjects range from her niece Madelonne to artists like Faith Ringgold and Jean-Michel Basquiat. These figures are not fixed but represent themes and stories that Anne explores. You’ll often see groups of two, three, or four figures surrounded by blue, green, or pink polka dots. This approach lets her subjects come across as sincere and honest. Their quirky smiles and expressive eyes seem to come alive and evoke a sense of wonder.
The show also includes a selection of Anne’s ceramics, adding a new physical dimension to her drawings. These pots feature characters, heads, people, and animals that seem to come to life and change shape, reflecting their uncertain fate in the kiln. “Will they withstand the heat?” Anne wonders, as we wait to see in the Green Room.
Anne Verhoijsen (1951) grew up in Someren in North Brabant and began drawing at age 45, starting from scratch. She found that drawing like a child was the freest way to create and helped her test her limits. She completed her training at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam in 2002 and has since incorporated performance, video, photography, and ceramics into her primarily pencil-and-paper work. This exhibition highlights her unique ability to express herself and capture her natural style.
Photo’s by Valentina Vos