Willem van genk biography
Home / General Biography Information / Willem van genk biography
The sight of long hair in frothy shampoo aroused sexual feelings that he had difficulty keeping under control. He was especially weak in mathematics, which outraged his father, who forced Willem to add and subtract the number of blows as he beat him.
Willem was expelled from primary school, and then failed at vocational school.
He delivered work of good quality, but he was nonetheless fired, because he could not maintain a regular working schedule and abide deadlines. Initially represented by Pieter Brattinga, by the 1970s van Genk was represented by the gallery De Ark. The gallery’s last show in 1976 before being taken over by the Hamer Gallery, which continued to represent the artist, was devoted to van Genk’s work.
He suffered from severe health and behavioral problems. After three months, van Genk was released and allowed to return home.
When he was five, his mother died, leaving Willem dependent on his abusive father and, especially, his nine sisters. His mother died when he was five. But high prices meant few sales, and mixed publicity, some of which insulted the artist’s mental capacities, motivated van Genk’s withdrawal from this early public attention. The director Joop Beljon recognized immediately the quality of his work, but also that the young artist was beyond the reach of the faculty’s lessons.
Education
In school Willem was a poor student, except in art; playing to his strength, he preferred to doodle throughout the day instead of paying attention in class. Van Genk’s work has been shown at the American Folk Art Museum, New York, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and elsewhere.
During the Second World War, van Genk’s father was active in the resistance to the German occupiers.
With his successes in the mid-1960s, van Genk was finally able to visite a number of cities in person, including Stockholm, Madrid, Rome, Moscow, Budapest, Frankfurt, and wall-divided Berlin. Van Genk gave up painting in 1988.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2019
Memory Palaces: Inside the Collection of Audrey B.
Heckler, American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY
2014
Willem Van Genk, American Folk Art Museum, New York
2010
The Museum of Everything, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin
2008
Heterotopia: Works by Willem van Genk and Others, Deutsches Architektur Museum, Frankfurt
2006
Inner Worlds Outside, traveling exhibition, Sala de Exposiciones de la Fundacíon "La Caixa," Madrid; WhiteChapel Gallery, London; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
2005
Dubuffet & Art Brut, traveling exhibition, Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf, Germany; Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne; Museum of Modern Art Lille Metropole, Villeneuve D'Ascq
2000
The Outlanders, Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne.
1998
Museum De Stadshof Zwolle, Museum Charlotte Zander Bonnigheim, Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne
Halle Saint Pierre, Paris
Museum Dr.
Guislane, Ghent
SELECTED BIBLIOGAPHY
The Museum of Everything, exhibition catalogue, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli & Electa, Turin/Milan, 2010.
Förster, York & Peter Cachola Schmal, Heterotopia: Works by Willem van Genk and Others, exhibition catalogue, Deutsches Architektur Museum, Frankfurt, 2008.
Inner Worlds Outside, exhibition catalogue, Fundacíon "La Caixa," WhiteChapel Gallery, Irish Museum of Modern Art & Ediciones El Viso, Madrid, 2006.
Dubuffet & Art Brut, exhibition catalogue, 5 Continents Editions & Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, 2005.
Van Berkum, Ans, "Willem Van Genk," Raw Vision, No.
In 1996 van Genk was involuntarily seized by the police from his Hague apartment and committed to a sanatorium. After losing his job he was forced to slave away at pointless tasks in something like a Victorian workhouse for the Dutch disabled. He also would spend hours observing trains during work time.
In 1964, Beljon organized the first solo exhibition of van Genk’s work in Hilversum.
He suffered from symptoms related to autism and paranoid schizophrenia.
In 1997, Willem van Genk suffered a first stroke and made his last drawing, thus closing his career as an artist. He was apprehended and subjected to violent interrogation by the Gestapo; it remains unclear whether Willem was merely present or interrogated as well.