Willem Hussem

Willem Hussem (1900–1974):

Willem Hussem was born in Rotterdam in 1900, where he attended the Rotterdam Academy and was taught by painter-graphic artist Dirk Nijland. In 1919 Hussem settled in Southern France.

 

In 1922 Hussem's first exhibition at Rotterdam-based art dealers Unger and Van Mens (landscapes and still lifes). After 1933, together with his wife, he visited France for the second time. In Paris he met Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso who were of great inspiration for Hussem.

 

After 1939 there is innovation, when Hussem starts making abstract paintings. In the fifties he produced paintings that seemed to emanate from calligraphic characters.

 

Willem Hussem was a member of the 'Liga Nieuwe Beelden' group, the 'Pulchri Studio' and the 'Haagse Kunstkring' in the Hague. In the late fifties more geometric influences are discernable which, after 1965, gradually change into more clear-cut forms.

 

Willem Hussem received many distinctions (including Jacob Maris prijs for painting in the Netherlands in 1953 and 1955). Willem Hussem died in the Hague in 1974.

 

Hussem's work in collections of the 'Stedelijk Museum' in Amsterdam, the 'Gemeentemuseum' in the Hague and the 'Dordrechts Museum' in Dordrecht.