Anton Heyboer

To celebrate this anniversary, Museum JAN presents the exhibition Anton Heyboer, which includes never-before-seen photo collages focusing on Heyboer's life with his wives.

Anton Heyboer

Heyboer was born in 1924 in Sabang (Dutch East Indies) but grew up largely in the Netherlands. He trained as a mechanical engineer and was during World War II forced by the German occupiers to work in a transit camp in Berlin, from which he managed to escape. As a result of his war trauma, he was temporarily admitted to the psychiatric institution in Santpoort in 1951. There he discovered the healing effects of art. In the 1950s and 1960s, he produced his first successful works: large sheets of simple graphics and gouaches. Later he used matchsticks to draw and also started painting and making sculptures. From 1961, he lived in Den Ilp in the Dutch province of North Holland with his wife Maria, and later with five women he called his 'brides': Lotti, Marike, Joke and Petra. With his women, he wanted to break free from society, to free himself from 'how things should be' according to your upbringing and background.

A glimpse into his life

In Den Ilp, he built an impressive oeuvre of several tens of thousands of artworks. His brides took care of selling his work and - under Heyboer's watchful eye - photographed their lives in Den Ilp. Occasionally, he would use the camera himself. He processed these photos into collages. These offer a glimpse into their special lives.

In the exhibition of Anton Heyboer Museum JAN honours their close relationship with Heyboer by telling this unique story. In collaboration with Lotti and Joke - who still live in Den Ilp - a selection was made from photo collages not previously shown, in addition to a series of etchings and plastics adapted into collages.