Henri Plaat - figures

Henri Plaat was one of the most idiosyncratic artists in the Netherlands. He trained as a typographer and began his career as a graphic artist, but from 1963 onwards he devoted himself entirely to the visual arts with gouaches, collages, and photographs. His oeuvre comprises over three thousand works on paper, a small number of oil paintings, and some forty films. He is best known for his landscapes, collages constructed from squares or diagonals. His inspiration lay in the past: deserted landscapes, decaying old cities, archaeology, and ancient manuscripts, but also pre-war films and film divas. His work has a melancholic undertone and combines form and color with absurdism and surrealism. Friend and filmmaker Cherry Duyns called him "the grand duke of absurdism." He also garnered recognition as a filmmaker: his film about the tango in South America won a Golden Calf in 1981, and in 1987 he received the LJ Jordaan Prize. In 1991, he was awarded the Jeanne Oosting Prize for watercolor art.