CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/21/2015

Jan Schoonhoven

In his introduction to David Zwirner Books' new monograph on Dutch artist Jan Schoonhoven (1914-1994), David Leiber writes, "From 1946 until his retirement in 1979, the Dutch artist and civil servant Jan Schoonhoven took the morning commuter train from his native Delft to The Hague, where he labored in the Department of Post, Telegraph, and Telephone. His wife packed his daily lunch of fried meatballs. Somehow Schoonhoven clung to the scaffolding of this everyday clerical routine and returned home nightly to his small kitchen table 'refreshed' and ready to work. There in Delft, a town known for its painters (Vermeer), pottery, and also breathtaking light, the artist crafted his signature sunken reliefs made from discarded cardboard boxes (usually packing for television sets) and sealed with unprinted newsprint and common white latex paint. As Rudi Fuchs wrote: 'Despite their minimal form and color there’s no boring monotony. Firstly, there is a sense of it being a manuscript, in which the handmade quality is almost tangible.'" Thin Ridge Cardboard-Second One (1965) is reproduced from Jan Schoonhoven, which will be the subject of a talk between Leiber and Schoonhoven scholar Antoon Melissen at the New York Public Library tonight at 6PM.