Co Westerik - hand-signed color screen print, 'Plant woman in glass on table outside'

The Dutch artist Co Westerik was born on March 2, 1924, in The Hague. Westerik trained at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. Four years after graduating, he won the Jacob Maris Prize for painting with the painting 'The Fishwife'. From 1958 to 1971, Co Westerik was a figure drawing teacher at the academy in The Hague. Realistic style Co Westerik painted in a realistic style, swimming against the current, as the fifties and sixties were primarily characterized by experimentation and abstraction. Partly due to this, his work also provoked negative reactions. Westerik was inspired by old masters such as Jan van Eyck and Piero della Francesca. A book on painting was also decisive for his later work. In 'Malmaterial und seine Verwendung im Bilde' (Painting Material and its Use in Painting) from 1921 by Max Doerner, he found everything he needed, such as how to make paint and the effect of different layers of paint applied on top of one another. Co Westerik created paintings, watercolors, drawings, lithographs, and etchings. People, animals, and plants are central to his work. He often placed people in dramatic situations.