ALBERT HOUTHUESEN

ALBERT HOUTHUESEN

1903 - 1979

Clown Faces

Da Scalzo Art Brasserie

Knightsbridge

215 Brompton Rd, London SW3 2EJ (0207 823 9971)

(3 minutes from Victoria & Albert Museum, crossing road towards Harrods)

17^th February – 27^th March 2010

Café Hours: 7am – 8pm

Arranged by Richard Nathanson

Impressionist & 20th Century Art

Exclusive Representative for The Albert Houthuesen Trust

P.O. Box 515, London SW15 2WB U.K.

Tel: 00 44 (0)208 788 2718

Email: richard@richardnathanson.co.uk

Website: www.richardnathanson.co.uk

Houthuesen’s work can be seen at the Victoria & Albert Museum

Department of Prints & Drawings (Tues – Sat 10-5)

Introduction

This is the first showing of Houthuesen’s vibrantly distinctive and powerful Clown series, done in Japanese felt pen (with frequent additions of gouache and watercolour) between 1976 and 1978.

Each work comes directly from the artist’s estate. Bears the artist’s signature or initials. (No. 29 is unsigned). And measures approximately 21 1/8 x 15 inches (53.5 x 38 cms). Nos. 15 & 27 measure (respectively 19 7/8 x 15 inches: 50.5 x 38 cms; and 19 x 12 ¾ inches: 48 x 32.5cms).

Houthuesen would heartily have approved this exhibition in the special ambience of the Da Scalzo Art Brasserie where his clowns can be enjoyed in relaxed surroundings by people from many different walks of life and cultures.

For Houthuesen the clown was a symbol inseparable in spirit from the artist and the poet. And many of his clowns portray the clown as philosopher and saint. The following passages, from his conversations with Richard Nathanson, are reproduced in the recently published Houthuesen biography Walk To The Moon.

You go to the theatre and see some nonsense review and there is always something wonderful. Two or three people in such and such a costume, wearing hats and tap dancing. These people all have their own character and beauty. How I loved seeing them, each one earning his living in this extraordinary way.

I think that anyone who clowns a great deal is the very one who, in another sense, thinks in a very serious way. It is a comment on despair. And but for this the world would go completely mad.

A person’s development is a very long and mysterious process. Very, very gradually, through wisdom and experience you become freer. You can’t pinpoint a particular stage of development. You weep more. You laugh more. You are older. And somehow you have changed.

Walk To The Moon (256 Pages & 340 Illustrations) on Sale at Exhibition

It is fortuitous that London is holding its first Van Gogh exhibition in 40 years. Houthuesen’s deep affinity with his fellow Dutchman’s compassionate feeling for the human situation and love of nature is evident in his 1930’s paintings of Welsh miners and landscapes; and his subsequent seascapes and still lives (Click ‘Selected Works’ & ‘Works’ after the illustrations below). Also in his spoken insights (scroll to The Meeting of Theo and Vincent Van Gogh in Paradise)

The BBC Documentary on Houthuesen’s life will be shown throughout the exhibition.
Please speak with Enzo Scalzo or his manager.

Richard Nathanson is preparing the Houthuesen Catalogue Raisonné.

richard@richardnathanson.co.uk (0208 788 2718): www.richardnathanson.co.uk