Introduction

Leafing through collected works of Bert Schierbeek(1918–1996), one will come across countless poems thathave a relation to the visual arts. Out of sheer admira-tion or personal affection, the poet was inspired by theworks of diverse artists like Shinkichi Tajiri, Pierre vanSoest and Frank Lodeizen, as well as Loes van der Horst,Jan Sierhuis and Guillaume Leroy; in other words: byimages, abstract graphics, large installations in pub-licspaces, colorful canvases by mainly Dutch artists whocrossed his path.

But often the reverse also happened: many painters,sculptors, photographers and filmmakers took Schier-beek’s poems as a starting point for their creations. Themost remarkable example of this is the painter JefDiederen, who was so totally impressed by Schierbeek’spoem Ezel mijn bewoner (Donkey my inhabitant) that hewas hard to stop: a series of 85 drawings and gouacheswas the result.

That mutual influence has resulted in a beautiful col-lection of collaborations, starting in 1954 with Het bloedstroomt door (The Blood keeps flowing), a text edition byBert Schierbeek, accompanied by ten black and whitedrawings by Karel Appel. Their friendship dated from theearly fifties, when Bert Schierbeek on his Parisian scout-ing trips, visited Appel’s studio at Rue Santeuil. In lateryears he would also work together with Lotti van derGaag and Corneille, whom he also met there.

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It is perhaps less known that Schierbeek showed hisaffinity to the visual arts not only in his poetry, but alsoin his prose texts. He opened exhibitions, did interviewswith artists, and wrote introductions to catalogs. Forthose activities he was widely praised. For example, re-viewing the catalog De kleur van Leo Schatz (Leo Schatz’Color, 1989) in his ‘Journaille-column’ in Amsterdamnewspaper Het Parool, Jan Vrijman paid him a compli-ment. ‘See, that’s the way to do it,’ asserted Jan Vrijmanpointedly. ‘His story and the beautiful reproductionsdrove me irresistibly towards the exhibition.’ Vrijmanthought that Schierbeek was ‘the’ person to write aboutart. And he was not alone in that. The question remainshow that came about. An often-heard answer was:Schierbeek was such an excellent observer. ‘You couldhear him looking at things,’ Diederen explained. ‘Whendriving through the countryside, he would take in every-thing. Like a child looking at things for the first time. Hewould loudly read slogans from billboards or trucks.Look, there goes International Movers, he would shoutenthusiastically.’

Edy de Wilde, former director of the Stedelijk Museumin Amsterdam, noticed Schierbeek’s keen eye by chance.In 1939, during mobilization prior to World War II, theyhad gotten to know each other. They would talk forhours and dream along the Hoornse Hop, an inlet fromthe IJsselmeer lake. De Wilde recalled later: ‘The way Bertused to look at the light on the clouds, or a little shipsailing, struck me immediately. I felt a certain kinship inthat.’

Willem Sandberg, Edy de Wilde’s predecessor in theStedelijk Museum, also saw Schierbeek’s qualities early

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on. Instigated by him, Schierbeek wrote De Experimen-telen (The Experimentalists) in 1964. This was an intro-duction to the thinking and acting of the DutchCobra-painters, whose short biographies were included.The book was translated into English, French, Spanishand German, and was published by the publishing houseMeulenhoff in their series ‘Arts in the Netherlands’. Publi-cations by different authors appeared in that series,about for instance Wessel Couzijn, De Stijl, J.B. Jongkind,neo-realism and Van Dongen. They must have likedSchierbeek’s approach, because a request was made byBloemena of Meulenhoff for another book in the series.Did he want to go to New York to portray painter Willemde Kooning (1904–1997)?

King De Kooning

When Schierbeek received this request, Willem de Koo-ning was already world famous. Many critics called himthe greatest painter in contemporary America. In fact, atnew exhibitions the question had shifted to whether DeKooning was already past his prime. That can be gath-ered from the survived folder with reviews and articlesthat Schierbeek was reading prior to his visit to De Koon-ing. There are essays by Clement Greenberg and HaroldRosenberg, two critics who probably contributed themost to the propagation of the movement described bythem as ‘abstract expressionism’ and ‘action painting’.This movement emerged at the end of the forties andflourished in the fifties. Besides Willem de Kooning, itincludes Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman,Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell. Schierbeek also had

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pieces by Thomas Hess, who, when writing aboutabstract-expressionists, was especially focused onWillem de Kooning.

Initially there was a strong rivalry between JacksonPollock and Willem de Kooning, which was not limited totheir artistic skills, but also involved women and alcohol.After Pollock died in a car accident in 1956, De Koon-ing was regarded as the most prominent painter of ab-stract expressionism.

It was obvious to refer to the meaning of his regalname: ‘koning’ and ‘king’. Lee Hall even used themetaphor of the coronation, the happenings in the king-dom and the death of the king as base for the structureof her book Elaine and Bill, Portrait of a Marriage: theLives of Willem and Elaine De Kooning (1993). ‘Queen’Elaine Fried, with whom Willem de Kooning lived to-gether for a long time, made great efforts to enlarge thefame of the painter. One of the intrigues at the courtwas that Elaine had an affair with Thomas Hess andwrote about De Kooning in the art magazine of whichHess was the editor.

At the time that Schierbeek wants to visit De Kooning,much has changed in the painter’s life. Movements andhypes in the art world rapidly follow each other. The at-tention moves from abstract expressionism to pop art,and the abstract-expressionists are going their own way.De Kooning has replaced the busy city of New York forrural Long Island, where many things remind him in anumber of ways of the country of his birth, as Schierbeekreports extensively. Although even now the repeatingthemes in his works and his handicraft provide for conti-

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nuity in his work, his new direction brings manychanges.

From 1955 onwards, De Kooning started a number ofhighly abstracted urban landscapes that became moreand more rural in character, and also had the sea as sub-ject, the longer he stayed in the Hamptons on LongIsland. In the sixties, however, he again made a series ofpaintings of women. When Schierbeek comes to visit,female and other figures, abstracted landscapes and seaviews dominate.

Whether De Kooning was directly involved in his ownpublic relations, or whether he preferred to leave this topeople in his direct surroundings, it is obvious that heabove all preferred to paint. That was already the caseduring the wild years in Manhattan with friends andalcohol. Since his departure to Long Island, he oftenworked seven days a week, which at first hinderedSchierbeek, but could be nicely observed by him later.

A book or no book

Interviewing De Kooning was not as easy as initiallythought. In a letter to Jan Gerhard Toonder in January1967, Margreetje, Schierbeek’s wife at the time, writes:‘Bert has gone to Willem de Kooning for a few days – atfirst he sounded more like William the Silent – impossibleto get him on the phone or to make an appointmentwith him. After a lot of modest and respectful waiting,Bert finally got so angry that he demanded over thephone (and fortunately he got the boss himself on theline) a definitive answer: a book or no book. And the poorman, who kept postponing because his painting

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“bugged” him so much, seemed hardly aware of what itwas all about. Now everything is beautiful and wonder-ful. Bert is enormously excited. They talk days and nightsand surely wash down a glass or two in between. Inshort, it promises to be a beautiful book.’

However, a book never materialized. There was a type-script, entitled Willem de Kooning: a portrait that wasready for the typesetter. This text was entirely in English,but a previous incomplete version, which was found inSchierbeek’s estate, consists of a mixture of English andDutch. It is very likely that Schierbeek’s American friendCharles McGeehan, who translated much of Schierbeek’sworks, translated the Dutch and corrected the English.The strange thing is that this apparently happened afterthe first retrospective of De Kooning, organized in theStedelijk Museum in 1968. A few fragments from Schier-beek’s text had been included in the catalog, while thecomplete book was announced for 1969. In the mainlyEnglish text, a few Dutch lines pop up occasionally: ‘Envergenoegd lachend voegt hij eraan toe: “Humor sneaksin.”’

The catalog also has an introduction by Thomas Hess,who, like Schierbeek, was one of the speakers at theopening of the exhibition, organized by the then directorEdy de Wilde. De Kooning himself was also there, back inthe Netherlands for the first time since his departure forAmerica. At that moment there did not seem to be aproblem, but when Schierbeek continued to work on themanuscript and a translation was made, some frustra-tion emerged. The story goes that De Kooning, whocould behave other-worldly and absent minded, had notcompletely realized that Schierbeek had come for a

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serious publication. Thomas Hess didn’t seem to beimpressed by Schierbeek’s approach. Edy de Wilde be-lieves that Hess thought it to be superficial, and thatSchierbeek had made it too easy for himself. Schierbeekthought that Hess was afraid that he would turn DeKooning too much into a ‘Dutch painter’. Similarly,abstract expressionism had been branded as a typicalAmerican movement, the first one that could measureup to European schools in painting, and the first onethat would indicate that New York had become thecenter of the art world, succeeding Paris.

Besides Hess, also Fourcade, the gallery owner of DeKoonings at the time, was active in guarding the imageof the American master. He prevented the publication ofa monograph about De Kooning, because he thoughtthat the painter deserved a better-known author.

It remains unclear what happened at the editors’ desk,but it is a fact that publisher Meulenhoff abandoned theproject entirely. Since then, the typescript, as well asSchierbeek’s copy, had been lost. Until two years after hisdeath, in 1998, the long lost manuscript was foundamong the author’s papers. The 2005 Willem de Kooningretrospective at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, his birth-place, seems the perfect occasion to finally publishSchierbeek’s text.

Karin EversGuido Walraven

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First page of the typescript of Bert Schierbeek

Nothing is positive about art except that it is a word.The artist takes art as he finds it.Art becomes a way to avoid a way.Forms ought to have the emotion of a concrete experi-ence. For instance: I am very happy that grass is green.

These statements were made by Willem de Kooning, theAmerican painter, born in Rotterdam, now 64 years ofage. He has been living in and around New York for overforty years. For the last ten years he has been one of themost illustrious of American painters, ‘the grey-lookeddean of abstract expressionism’.

His influence on American painting between the twoworld wars and thereafter is in many respects compara-ble with that of Pablo Picasso on the European scene. Hispersonality and skill exerted a catalyzing effect on hissurroundings and his artist friends.

De Kooning was twenty-two when he sailed to America.For ten years he had attended the night-courses of deAcademie voor Beeldende Kunsten en Techniese Weten-schappen (The Academy for Applied Arts and Design) inRotterdam. He did that upon the advice of Jan and JaapGidding, ‘painters and decorators’, with whom he hadtaken up employment after elementary school.

To New York he brought along his giftedness, his skill,and his familiarity with European painting. From hismother, a headstrong, willful and domineering woman,he got his perseverance and the will to do somethingunique, without making any concessions to the outsideworld.

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‘I want to be the greatest artist, the greatest lover andthe greatest drinker.’

These he succeeded in splendidly, though not exactlyas his mother had foreseen or intended.

From his father he fell heir to unconcern, mobility, andthe unflinching swagger to battle through the toughestof situations… and maybe a kind of diffidence and shy-ness as well.

His parents separated, so at an early age he was learn-ing to look at life from two sides.

‘The ambiguity of reality’ has always played a great rolein his work and his statements.

His grey head has something catlike about it and this isone cat you can’t put into anyone’s bag.

‘What I see is a glimpse, a glimpse of reality, and thatglimpse is the essence of my reality, and I’m that specialpart of it and all. So what I make out of it must be real.’

But sometimes months could slip by before he couldget his ‘glimpse’ onto canvas, for nothing is easy. Andafter some such months he would throw the irksomecanvas into a corner and despair and drink and drink toomuch. Then the confrontation could begin anew and beworked out in an hour and he could set it aside. He’d setit aside and say that it was finished, that is: finished for-ever… Yet it is said that, for those who possess works ofhis, it is not advisable, anymore, to lend him these paint-ings, because one can never be certain that he won’tstart to ‘finish’ them again.

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‘I’m not ready yet,’ is proverbial of De Kooning. He hasturned down several offers for exhibitions.

He has given a good deal of thought to the problemsand possibilities of painting, and he doesn’t stuff histhoughts under the sofa or the rug. That, in part, ex-plains for the great influence he had on his artisticmilieu.

The first contact I had with him was by telephone. Wehad made the appointment to meet at his place.

‘Now listen,’ he said, ‘you take the 2:07 train of theLong Island Railroad this afternoon, leaving from GrandCentral to Montauk. You take that train and you sit quiet,for people who know sit quiet on that train. There aremany Hamptons… There’s West Hampton, Hampton,Hampton’s Bay, but you sit quiet, and when you see EastHampton you get off… and I’ll be there…’

A youthful, sonorous voice from East Hampton, LongIsland, three hours by train from New York. De Kooninghad been living there for ten years.

As the train left New York progressively behind, I wascoming right back into a Dutch landscape. Rivers, woods,lakes, dunes. Pollock had lived and worked there, so hadFranz Kline; and Harold Rosenberg still lives there, asdoes Saul Steinberg.

Elaine de Kooning, herself a good painter, to whomDe Kooning was married in 1943 and from whom he isnow divorced, described her first meeting with him asfollows:

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‘I met Bill in a bar in 1936. I thought he had seaman’seyes that seemed as if they were staring at very widespaces all day. He had an inhuman look − vacant, limpid,angelic. I visited his studio several days later with afriend. It was the cleanest place I ever saw in my life. Ithad painted gray floors, white walls, one table, one bed,four chairs, one easel, one fantastically good phonographthat cost $ 800 when he was only making twenty-twodollars a week, and one painting − a man − on the easel.The whole effect was that this man was great.’

Upon the platform at East Hampton stood De Kooning.A smallish, broad-shouldered man whose bearing re-minded me of the Dutch architect, Gerrit Rietveld. Hetoo had the same bright blue-grey eyes, which reallyseemed to be empty, at least to be a bit suggestive ofexpectancy with remoteness, but also of the confidenceof being able to overcome this prospect. And yet therewas also something vulnerable in his eyes. But then weshook hands; and his grip was firm, and his look wasopen. His grey forelock hung lank over his forehead. Hislarge right hand stroked it back now and then.

‘You know, last week I couldn’t receive you,’ he wassaying in an apologetic tone, ‘because there’s a paintingI’m working on now that’s really bugging me − I meanit.’

The next day I could see that with my own eyes.But first we went to a restaurant in West Hampton for

dinner.‘D’you like wild duck?’And without waiting for an answer:

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‘Of course you do... All Hollanders like wild duck.’He held the menu in his hands. Impressive workman’s

hands, strong and relaxed with tapering fingers.‘And a good wine,’ he said, ‘I like wild duck with a good

red wine.’He really did go for this tasty duck and so did I.Once he had said: ‘An artist should be a man first.’ That

he is, and it’s no wonder that I happened to meet manywomen in New York art circles who, all of them itseemed, had known him well, and who invariably eachhad something to say about him. He has had a greatpower of attraction on women and they conversely onhim.

‘... but he isn’t the marrying kind.’While we were having dinner he suddenly asked me:

‘Do they still say ‘jongens onder mekaar’ in Holland?’(Ex-pression of the idea ‘Just between, or among, the boys’.)

This was the first time he had spoken Dutch. He had agood laugh when I confirmed this. De Kooning had ar-rived in America without being able to speak a word ofEnglish.

‘I picked it up from the streets, from my colleagues,from the New York signs, in the movies, and in my read-ing of the newspapers.’

He had to suppress his native language to learn theforeign language as fast and as well as possible.

‘Now that I’m sixty, Dutch comes back, you see. I think Ihad to forget it.’

De Kooning says ‘tink’ and ‘ting’. As in ‘Anyting you cantink of is a ting but whatever a ting is, it’s always some-ting else.’

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After dinner we went to the house in East Hamptonhe’d bought eight years earlier; an old, locally-styledhouse of wood, painted white. The walls of the largeliving-room are white. No paintings upon the walls,though a few small, framed prints do hang there. In acorner sits a TV. We sit at a low, round table. At this tableDe Kooning works when he gets back from his studio −drawing while sitting looking at TV.

‘The mother of Lisbeth my daughter, who’s thirteennow, is the one who did all the decorating here. Ithought she and the little girl would come and live herewith me, but it didn’t work out that way. They come tovisit me every weekend now.’

And then with a jocular smile he went on:‘Once I was in Rome, and at a party there I met an

American painter of my age, dignified and well-dressed. Ilove to be well-dressed. He had a nice wife, and a son incollege. They were making the rounds of museums andruins; they knew about all there was to see and enjoyedlooking at it intelligently. When I was young I ex-pected to turn into that sort of man, but somehow itdidn’t happen.’

As he says this he doesn’t seem to be sorry about it.I asked him why he went to America in 1926, and not toParis, as did many young artists of this time. Heanswered:

‘When we went to the Academy in Rotterdam − doingpainting, decorating, making a living − young artistswere not interested in painting per se. We used to callthat “good for men with beards.” And the idea of apalette, with colors on it, was rather silly. At that time wewere influenced by the de Stijl group. The idea of being a

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