Jan Cremer - Grote litho: The Light of Tuscany - 1998

Large lithograph by Jan Cremer from 1998. Title: La Luce di Toscana (the light of Tuscany). Edition: EAP II/IV. Top dimensions: H50.5 X W66cm. Dimensions: H39 x W63cm. The work is signed by the artist at the bottom right. The authenticity of the work offered is fully guaranteed. A certificate of authenticity can be emailed upon request.

Literature: Cremer Grafiek/ Prints 1956-1998: 98-26/L.

Shipping/collection:

When purchased, the work can be picked up in 's-Gravenzande (near The Hague (Scheveningen), Rotterdam and Delft and 10 minutes from the beach). The collection period is very long if paid in advance. In other words, the buyer can pick up the work weeks or even months later and, if possible, combine it with a visit to one of the above-mentioned cities or the beach. The work can also be shipped via Postnl. Our shipping days are Tuesday and Thursday.

Jan Cremer (Enschede, April 20, 1940) is a Dutch writer and visual artist. Jan Cremer is best known for the novel Ik, Jan Cremer from 1964 and Ik Jan Cremer, second book from 1966. His second book has sometimes been compared to On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Cremer has a keen ear for vulgar, humorous language and an eye for the absurd side of the American glamor world, which makes him related to Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Nathanael West, especially in Ik, Jan Cremer Derde Boek and Made in USA.

Lifecycle

Jan Cremer was educated at the art academies of Arnhem and The Hague, where he lived in Annastraat.

Cremer's literature and visual arts show striking similarities. Both focus on breaking away from traditional aesthetics and age-old cultural baggage, as the following quotes illustrate:

"I don't read, I am read."

"Rembrandt? Who is that? I don't know anything about cyclists."

Jan Cremer with his book Ik, Jan Cremer (1964)

Both quotes reveal his ability to shock or at least attract attention and sell himself as a courageous guy with demonstrable talent (cf. James Dean): experiencing culture as a burden fits into this picture. I Jan Cremer in particular, but also his 'peinture barbarism', comparable to that of Karel Appel, were shocking. Actions such as hanging a tag of NLG 1,000,000 on a painting (he was only 18 years old at the time) and racing past the book ball while honking loudly made him the enfant terrible of Dutch visual arts and literature.

The literary relevance of Cremer's work is especially embodied in Ik Jan Cremer. Central to this is the liberation of the ideals of the 1950s. It is a harbinger of the free sex and wild 1960s. This explains why Cremer was also widely read outside the Netherlands. This also attracted criticism. Questions were asked in the House of Representatives about the book, it was called fascist and football hooligans were accused of "Jan Cremerism".

Cremer himself contributed greatly to this, because he saw the commercial possibilities of it. When a diligent police officer in Hengelo confiscated copies of Ik Jan Cremer in early 1964, statements of support from concerned parents appeared in several newspapers. They turned out to all have been written by Jan Cremer.

Cremer is described by Remco Campert in his novella Tjeempie! Or Liesje in Luiletterland personified as the Predator, as one of the modern writers that Liesje goes to visit. In it, Cremer is described as an aggressive mourner for whom everyone cringes in the dust. He knows that it involves "munnie in the pokkut and a bebie in bed", and instead of a car he has a golden helicopter. Of all modern writers he is characterized as the worst: "he is not a man but a beast".

In 1999, the short story collection De Venus van Montparnasse was published, a collection of twelve literary reports from Cremer's journalistic repertoire.

On November 30, 2000 he was appointed Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.

In his book The Huns, Cremer fiercely criticizes the government in London during the occupation in the Second World War, which called for the Railway Strike in 1944. According to him, this strike actually caused the Hunger Winter, because it prevented food from the northern parts of the country (including potatoes from Groningen) from being transported to the major cities in the starving west of the country.

Jan Cremer (2017)

From June 10 to 27, 2013, Cremer had more than a thousand works of art, photos, letters and other personal documents and objects from his possession auctioned.

In 2020 he was awarded the Frans Banninck Cocq Medal. The medal is awarded to Amsterdam residents who have made a special contribution, for example in the cultural field. Deputy Mayor Rutger Groot Wassink called Cremer 'a predecessor and an advocate of the free Amsterdam as we know it today and where everyone is welcome'.