Jaap Mooy - Observatorium - Sold

Original artwork by Jaap Mooy, similar to the work “Observatorium” that is part of the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
Jaap Mooy (1915-1987) was an 'outsider artist' who lived in Bergen all his life. Still working as a blacksmith and banker, he was captivated by making art and the attitude to life of Bergen artists whom he regularly met in the café. It marked the beginning of a quirky artistry. Although Mooy thought about enroling in the academy, he followed the advice of Charlie Toorop and her environment, to remain self-taught.
Early work from the thirties are photo collages and small assemblages, which he himself called viewing cabinets. Later, Mooy worked in the style of Cobra. He was good friends with Lucebert and would also exhibit with Karel Appel and Lucebert in the Dutch pavilion at the Venice Biennale in the sixties. He already declined the invitation to join Cobra before that time, Mooy did not want to belong to a group and continue to speak his own language.
He became more famous from the late fifties with his scrap images and - drawings, for which he had a completely own technique; masterfully skilled and with great expressiveness. Mooy was marked by the war and, fascinated by both beauty and garbage, chose to work with garbage. The images would bring him appreciation in Germany and America in the 60s.
Mooy then didn't establish his name. If style got stuck, it couldn't be free anymore. With that view, he undermined his own handwriting and made it difficult for himself to get a place between the established order. He would rather continue to fight against power. Making art was not a goal for him, Mooy wanted to make people aware of human rights, dictatorships and oppression. He wanted to keep responding to the outside world.
The Bergenaar would also have an abstract period. Later images show interfaces with absurdism, in which the madness of everyday life is a recurring motive.