Willem Hussem (1900-1974) was a renowned Dutch artist & poet who continually experimented and produced highly diverse works of art, including painting, drawing and sculpture. A constant aspiration towards simplicity and purity underlies his entire oeuvre. It was in Zen Bhuddism that he found the intellectual basis for the universalistic outlook on the world that would determine his thought and work.
Throughout his life Hussem was in search of a manner of working that tied in with his philosophical views. In poetry, he found this in short lyrics, while in art he initially found it in a style that steered a middle path between expressionism and constructivism, and finally in geometrical abstraction.
This exhibition is the fourth exhibition in VITRINE’s gallery collaboration programme in the Bermondsey, London, space. The show coincides with a presentation of Hussem’s work by Dürst Britt & Mayhew at TEFAF Maastricht 2024.
During his lifetime Willem Hussem had solo exhibitions at Gemeentemuseum in Den Haag, Museum Het Princessehof in Leeuwarden and Stedelijk Museum in Schiedam and participated in major group exhibitions in Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. He also exhibited twice at the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, US. In 1960 Willem Hussem represented The Netherlands at the Venice Biennial.
After Hussem’s death in 1974, the ‘Hussem Committee’, which consisted of influential artists, art historians and museum directors, kept his legacy alive. Retrospectives were mounted at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Centraal Museum in Utrecht, Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede, Museum Dordrecht and Museum Belvedere in Oranjewoud.
Willem Hussem’s work has recently been shown at PS Project Space in Amsterdam, Artissima in Turin, Museum Jan Cunen in Oss and Proyecto Paralelo in Mexico City. In 2021 Dürst Britt & Mayhew mounted a retrospective at Pulchri Studio in The Hague with loans from museums, corporate and private collections.
Willem Hussem’s work is held in many private and public collections, including Centraal Museum, Utrecht: Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the AKZO Nobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam.
Willem Hussem