2. Artists & stock
3. An Dekker
4. Biography

Notes of biography

An Dekker is born in the Netherlands in 1931. "In my youth I decided to become a sculptor, the reason remains mysterious," says An Dekker. As far back as her memories reach, she remembers having wanted to be a sculptor. Her first teacher, who asks her to show her hands before entering the class, she shyly presented the backs of her hands, before he tells her curtly: "On the other side!"; the man has no doubt and she is accepted. By 1950, after studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam (Rijksacademie), she moves to Paris to undergo training in the workshop of the sculptor Ossip Zadkine at the Grande Chaumière. She quickly feels the vibrations of major innovations that were born into the world of sculpture and Fine Arts in the first half of the twentieth century (Zadkine, of course, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Brancusi, Giacometti and many others). An Dekker has thousand memories of her debut, she recalls her work in a stonecutters workshop, before eventually being hired, how strong men - who mock her, sure in advance of her pathetic results - ask the young woman with long hair to sculpt a rose.
The girl early researches an international expansion, probably the famous hymn of the same name (the famous International) that her mother sang in a clear voice to the young child is important! Woman and artist, An Dekker, over time, lives and works in France, in Nigeria, in the Netherlands and England. The first exhibition of the artist is held in France, in Nîmes at the Maison Carrée (Squared House) in 1953.
An Dekker is a multifaceted artist and her work does not fail to evoke the old and new themes such as "war and peace, the prosecution and the defense, engagement and independence, beauty and comfort, living areas and continents, "says Jacqueline Stoop in her introduction “Polyphony of a female bird” of the book "An Dekker. Sculptures" (J. Stoop, A. Peypers, Ed. of the artist, 2007). The recurring themes of her work touch her beliefs and deepest concerns, enriched by her personal experiences as her spleen; her work, always touching aspects of our human condition, is above all inspired by her encounters with the Other.
An Dekker works with wood, plaster, stone, concrete, steel, sometimes combining materials. It seems it would be mistaken, An Dekker has followed several different paths (abstraction, figuration free or "archaic"); independent woman, An Dekker has simply chosen, but with determination, the multiple language as well as Multilingual sculpture.
For more ten years now, An Dekker lived and worked in France; she was settled in Prayssac in the Lot for the past two years. An Dekker left us in September, 2012.

Among the tools in her studio / one tape recording and a linen chiffon / protecting from dust / which envelopes her like a veil / when she works wood, plaster, stone. / Music, too, surrounds her. / Her favorite cds, the fugues of Bach / Miles Davis, Carmina Burana, / the Verdi Requiem, Dido and Aeneas. / Always the same disks / the same sound of scissors / the same intensity. Ankie Peypers

• Back to the works ARTIST ALARM

  You want to be alarmed for any new work by this artist ? Enter your email address to get an alarm

  * Your phone number allows us to stay in touch in case our answer goes to your spam folder !

  I have read and accept the website mchampetier.com's Confidentiality and personal data protection charter.

  
  Alarm me