Constant Nieuwenhuys facts for kids

Constant Anton Nieuwenhuys (born July 21, 1920 – died August 1, 2005), known simply as Constant, was a Dutch artist. He was a painter, sculptor, graphic artist, writer, and musician. Constant is famous for his art and his ideas about how cities and society could be better. He was a key member of important art groups like CoBrA and the Situationist International.

Early Life and Art

Constant in his studio, 1966

Constant was born in Amsterdam in 1920. His younger brother, Jan Nieuwenhuys, also became an artist. Constant loved to draw from a young age and was very talented. He also enjoyed reading poetry and playing music. He learned to sing and read music in his church choir. Later, he played improvised music, especially inspired by gypsy styles. He played guitar, violin, and even learned the cimbalon when he was 45.

Constant painted his first oil painting, De Emmaüsgangers, when he was just sixteen. It showed a religious scene. He didn't have much money, so he painted it on a jute sugar bag using paints he bought from a house painter. Many of his early works were inspired by religion because of his schooling. However, by age twenty, Constant decided to leave Catholicism.

After studying at an arts and crafts school, Constant went to the State Academy of Fine Arts from 1939 to 1941. The skills he learned there were very useful later, especially when he built models for his "New Babylon" project.

From 1941 to 1943, Constant lived in Bergen. There, he discovered the work of Paul Cézanne, which greatly influenced him. In 1942, he married Matie van Domselaer.

In 1943, Constant and Matie moved back to Amsterdam because Bergen was evacuated during World War II. Constant had to hide during the war to avoid being forced to work for the Germans. This meant he couldn't easily buy art supplies. He often painted on tablecloths and bed sheets, washing them to reuse them.

During the war, Constant's brother-in-law, Jaap van Domselaer, hid with them. He introduced Constant to the ideas of important thinkers like Plato and Karl Marx. Marx's ideas especially inspired Constant's later thoughts on art and society.

Constant's first son, Victor, was born during the severe winter famine of 1944. After the war, Constant and his family returned to Bergen, then moved back to Amsterdam in 1946. With the war over, Constant was free to explore new artistic ideas. He experimented with many different art techniques and was inspired by Cubism. His daughters Martha and Olga were born in 1946 and 1948.

CoBrA Art Group

In 1946, Constant traveled to Paris and met the Danish painter Asger Jorn. Their friendship later led to the creation of the CoBrA art movement.

In July 1948, Constant, along with Corneille, Karel Appel, and his brother Jan Nieuwenhuys, started a group called "Experimental Group in Holland." They published a magazine called Reflex, with a statement written by Constant. He believed that art should be experimental, meaning it should come from the artist's experiences and always be changing. He wrote that the process of creating art was more important than the finished artwork itself.

Constant, Corneille, and Appel were very different artists, but they all wanted to create new and exciting art. They showed their work together and were often seen in the European art scene.

Later in 1948, in Paris, the "Experimental Group in Holland" joined with artists from Belgium and Denmark to form CoBrA. The name CoBrA came from the first letters of their hometowns: Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam. The group was against traditional art and wanted to create art that was more raw and expressive.

Constant's ideas were already in his Reflex magazine statement. One of his famous quotes from that time is: "A painting is not a structure of colours and lines, but an animal, a night, a cry, a man, or all of these together."

Constant was very active during the CoBrA period. Some of his well-known works from this time include White Bird (1948) and Ladder (1949). The CoBrA group also published bulletins, and more artists joined them. They had two big exhibitions, one in Amsterdam in 1949 and one in Liège in 1951.

The director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Willem Sandberg, supported young artists. He gave the CoBrA group seven large rooms to show their art. Since most of their works were small because they didn't have much money, Sandberg gave them an advance to create bigger pieces for the exhibition. Constant, Corneille, Appel, and Eugène Brands made several large artworks that became famous for the movement. The way the art was shown caused a lot of strong criticism from the public and the press. One critic wrote: "Smirch, twaddle and mess in the Municipal Museum." People thought the CoBrA artists were just scribblers.

At the Liège exhibition in 1951, which was even bigger than the Amsterdam one, the CoBrA group decided to break up. They wanted to "die in beauty" rather than become a regular art group.

Situationist International and New Babylon

Alderman Van der Berg received wire sculpture of Constant Nieuwenhuis, 1956

After CoBrA, Constant's art became more abstract. In 1952, he became interested in how spaces are built and how they affect people. He worked with architect Aldo van Eyck on an exhibition about "Man and House" in Amsterdam. In 1954, he worked with Gerrit Rietveld to create a model house.

In 1952, Constant received a scholarship to study in London. As he walked through the city, which still had areas damaged from bombing, he started thinking about how people live and how cities should be designed. He felt that the buildings of his time were mostly practical and boring, and didn't allow for fun or creative ways of living.

In 1956, Asger Jorn invited Constant to a meeting in Italy about "Industry and the Fine Arts." Constant gave a speech where he argued for a type of architecture that would encourage a creative lifestyle, not limit it. At this meeting, he met Guy Debord, who had started the Lettrist International, a group that wanted to combine art and technology. Constant and Debord found they had similar ideas.

Debord wanted to create an even more radical group that would focus on how places affect people's feelings (called psychogeography) and break down the barriers between art and everyday life. In 1957, he and Asger Jorn formed the Situationist International (SI). They said they were not just an art movement.

Constant didn't join SI right away because he felt the artists were too focused on their own interests. But when SI started promoting "unitary urbanism" (the idea of combining art and technology in city design), which Constant and Debord had discussed, Constant joined. He wrote articles for the SI journal and showed his "New Babylon" series in museums.

However, disagreements within the group led to Constant leaving SI in 1960.

New Babylon Project

After his time in London, Constant focused on architecture and city planning. He wanted to find out how art could make daily life more exciting and allow for more creative expression. From 1956 to 1974, he stopped painting and worked only on his "New Babylon" project.

Constant Nieuwenhuys (1974)

New Babylon was Constant's vision for a "world wide city for the future." In this city, land would be owned by everyone, and machines would do all the work. People wouldn't need to work; instead, they would live a traveling life filled with creative play. Constant called the people living in New Babylon homo ludens, which means "playing man." They would be free from labor and could be creative in their daily lives.

Constant explained his project:

The New Babylon project only wants to give the basic conditions for people to act as freely as possible. We must avoid anything that limits movement or stops people from creating moods and atmospheres. Everything should be possible, everything should happen. The environment should be shaped by life's activities, not the other way around.

The New Babylon project included many models, constructions, drawings, and writings that showed Constant's ideas about city development and how people interact. He used modern materials like stainless steel, aluminum, and perspex for his models, such as Het Ruimtecircus (Spatial Circus) and Het Zonneschip (Sunvessel), both from 1956.

In 1974, the New Babylon project officially ended with a big exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Constant sold all his models and drawings to the museum because he didn't have space to store them. In 1999, an exhibition called Constant's New Babylon: City for Another Life opened in New York, which was his first solo show in the United States.

The Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas said that Constant's New Babylon made many architects think differently, calling him "an example of courage."

Later Art: Colorism

Constant returned to painting, watercolor, and graphics in 1969. For several years, his imaginary world of New Babylon still appeared in his art. But he also started to be inspired by current events and political issues, like the Vietnam War and famines in Africa. His ideas about Marxism continued to influence him.

Constant began using a painting technique called colorism, inspired by old Venetian painters like Titian and Tintoretto. With this technique, the artist doesn't draw outlines first. Instead, they apply color directly to the canvas, creating soft changes in color rather than sharp edges. The most important part of this technique is how light is shown in the painting by being part of the color itself. This was a lot of work for Constant. He painted with oil on canvas, and each layer had to dry before he could add the next. Because of this, he only produced about three or four paintings each year during this period.

Art in Public Spaces

Constant Nieuwenhuis fountain - 1970, Kooiplein in Leiden

In 1949, Constant decorated a garden wall in Denmark.

In 1963, The Gate of Constant, a forty-foot-high concrete structure, was placed at the entrance of a sports park in Amsterdam. Constant designed it for the city. For almost 30 years, the gate was there without much information about it. Later, money was left to build an information sign next to it, and Constant's widow was present at its opening.

In 1966, Constant designed a fountain for a square in Leiden. For many years, the fountain didn't work and slowly fell apart. When the square was redesigned in 1999, the fountain was fixed.

Death

Constant passed away on August 1, 2005. He was survived by his son, three daughters, and his widow and her daughter.

Films About Constant

Several films have been made about Constant and his work:

• Gyromorphosis (1958, 7 min) - This film shows the moving parts of Constant's New Babylon structures.
• Accompanying Simon Vinkenoog to Constant's New Babylon (1962, 15 min) - Constant discusses his New Babylon ideas with writer Simon Vinkenoog.
• Constant oder der Weg nach New Babylon (1968, 55 min) - This film follows Constant and his ideas for the New Babylon project.
• Cobra, a revolt against order (1986, 50 min) - A documentary about the importance of the CoBrA group.
• Constant, Avant le Départ (2005, 82 min) - This film shows Constant during the last months of his life as he finished his final painting.
• New Babylon de Constant (2005, 13 min) - A visual look at New Babylon by Constant's son, Victor Nieuwenhuijs.

Exhibitions

Constant's art has been shown in many exhibitions around the world. Here are some of them:

• 1940: Aalderink art gallery in Amsterdam (his first exhibition)
• 1947: Santee Landweer art gallery in Amsterdam (his first solo exhibition)
• 1953: For a spatial colorisme at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
• 1959: Constant. Constructions and models at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
• 1966: New Babylon at the Biennale of Venice (Constant represented the Netherlands)
• 1974: New Babylon at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
• 1999: Another City for Another Life: Constant's New Babylon at The Drawing Center, New York
• 2001: Constant, une rétrospective at the Musée Picasso Antibes
• 2011: Klee und Cobra. Ein Kinderspiel at the Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland

Where to See His Art

Constant's artworks are part of many public collections in museums.

Dutch Museums

• Amsterdam Museum
• Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht
• Centraal Museum, Utrecht
• Cobra Museum for modern art, Amstelveen
• Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
• Groninger museum
• Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo
• Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
• Rijksmuseum – Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam
• Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
• Stedelijk Museum Schiedam
• Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

European Museums

• Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
• Krefelder Kunstmusea, Krefeld, Germany
• Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, Denmark
• MACBA, Spain
• Museum Jorn, Silkeborg, Denmark
• Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany
• Tate Gallery, London
• Tate Modern, London

Museums Outside Europe

• MoAFL, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, US
• SFMOMA, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, US

Awards and Recognition

Constant received several awards for his artistic contributions:

• 1960: Sikkens Award
• 1966: Premio Cardazzo at the Venice Biennale
• 1974: David Röell Award for his drawings
• 1985: Singer Award for his entire body of work
• 1991: Resistance Award
• 1994: Oeuvre Award from the Foundation Fund for Fine Arts, Design & Engineering

See also

In Spanish: Constant Nieuwenhuys para niños