(Delft 1914–1994)
Untitled, 1964, signed and dated on the reverse J. J. Schoonhoven 1964, corrugated cardboard relief and board, 80.5 x 59 x 3 cm

This work will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of Jan Schoonhoven, being currently compiled.

We are grateful to Antoon Melissen, Berlin, for his scientific assistance in cataloging this work.

Provenance:
Galerie Wulfengasse 14, Klagenfurt
Heiderose Hildebrand, Vienna – gift from the artist

Exhibited:
Klagenfurt, Galerie Wulfengasse 14, Jan Schoonhoven, 1965

In July 1962 Jan Schoonhoven and the other members of the Dutch “Nul” Group (Armando, Jan Henderikse and Henk Peeters), exhibited at Galerie Wulfengasse 14 in Klagenfurt. “Neue holländische Tendenzen” (“New Dutch Tendencies”) was their first exhibition abroad, showing a transition from Informel painting, to non-painterly works in the spirit of ZERO. Schoonhoven had been working on his distinctive monochrome white reliefs, made of papier-mâché, paper and cardboard since 1960. It was these works that gained him international recognition, as one of Europe’s foremost ZERO artists.

In an artist’s text from 1965 entitled: „Zero “, De nieuwe stijl. Werk van de internationale avant-garde 1, Schoonhoven wrote about his concept of ZERO, of showing “(…) reality in essence, (...) of localized things in isolated clarity.
The aim is to ground reality as art, in an impersonal way.” The untitled relief from 1964 presented here, is a remarkable demonstration of such reductionist ideas.

The concept for this relief is closely linked to the 1964 exhibition “ZERO-0-Nul” at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague (see photo), at which Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker also exhibited.
To distinguish themselves from German ZERO, the Dutch artists focused on creating installations made from readymade objects and industrial materials. In preparation, the artists visited a paint factory, in search of suitable materials. In the attic of the factory, Schoonhoven stumbled upon a supply of folded cardboard boxes. These boxes reminded him of his earlier reliefs composed of horizontal strips of cardboard, which had also been exhibited in Klagenfurt in 1962.
“Those [boxes] formed a complete wall, the way my reliefs look. (…) So that’s how they came to be moved to the museum.”

In Schoonhoven’s untitled installation from 1964, strips of corrugated cardboard create a pattern of light and shadow, reinforced by a loosely stacked structure. The installation inspired him to create a number of reliefs further exploring this concept.
The work presented here, is one of the earliest examples. These were possibly his “most distinct ZERO reliefs” according to Schoonhoven: “I’ve always had the feeling that these [works] emerged mainly out of ZERO theories, about isolating materials in order to give them a new reality.”
Antoon Melissen is an art historian, author and curator, specialised in Dutch art in the international context from the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.