(Delft 1914–1994)
‘R87–4’, 1987, signed, titled, dated and inscribed on the reverse Jan J. Schoonhoven, 1987, there with the measurements 42 x 24 cm, cardboard, latex paint on wood, 42 x 24 x 5 cm

We are grateful to Anton Melissen, Amsterdam, for his scientific support in cataloguing this work. The work will be included in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Jan J. Schoonhoven’s reliefs.

Jan J. Schoonhoven's fascination is with the serial relief, which has an inherent meditative quality both in the process of production and in contemplation. From 1955 onwards, he created monochrome white reliefs. Through being reduced to white, the reliefs display an alternating play of light and shadow. The elevations and depressions of the reliefs and the reflection of light on the white surfaces became an active part of his artworks.

"The white reliefs are three-dimensional and as such also palpable objects. They are objects insofar as they are what they are, that is, they do not represent or imitate anything they are not. [...] Schoonhoven's white reliefs are each serial works and surface-wise are mostly grid-like systems with a multitude of identical and equivalent spatial depressions. The seriality consists in the repetition of the same.”

(Max Imdahl, quoted from: Künstler. Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, 9th ed., p. 7).