Jan Sierhuis - Fire on the beach

Typical work by Jan Sierhuis (1928-2023)

Jan Sierhuis (1928-2023)
Fire on the beach
Oil on canvas
50 x 50 cm
Signed and dated lower right

Sierhuis grew up during the Depression. His father died when he was two. In his early childhood, he sculpted and drew, and on his ninth birthday, he received a painting set. As a boy, he often wandered through Amsterdam. He grew up surrounded by cityscapes like those of Israëls and Breitner. Although Sierhuis traveled the world, he always considered himself an Amsterdammer.[1] He attended trade school to become a house painter, which gave him extensive knowledge of materials.
Along with Appel, Corneille, and Lucebert, he was at the center of postwar developments in art. In 1945, he was admitted to the evening classes at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (National Academy of Fine Arts), which he left after a conflict. He was involved with the Experimentalists in 1947 and the CoBrA group in 1948, though he was too young to join. Later, in 1962, he co-founded the Amsterdam artist group Groep Scorpio with Frans de Boo, Roger Chailloux, John Grosman, Guillaume Lo-A-Njoe, Karl Pelgrom, Pierre van Soest, Aat Verhoog, and Leo de Vries. "Angry Young Men" were they who wanted to take a different approach to exhibitions. The group was supported by Professor Hans Jaffé.
Jan Sierhuis taught at Ateliers '63 in Haarlem in 1968 and was a tutor at Psychopolis, the Vrije Academie in The Hague, from 1970 to 1979. In 1983, Sierhuis became a lecturer at the Rietveld Academie and in 1984 at the Rijksakademie, an institute for practical study, both in Amsterdam.
Sierhuis received the Royal Grant for Painting for his work in 1956, and in 1957 he received a medal from the Thérèse van Duyl-Schwartze Portrait Prize. In 1987, he was awarded the Jeanne Oosting Prize. He also received an honorable mention in the Prix de Rome. In 2002, he was made an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Sierhuis died on July 4, 2023 at the age of 94 in his hometown of Amsterdam.[1]