Dimensions 50 x 64 cm
Material Woodcut
Jan Jansen original Early 1980’s
Material Woodcut
Jan Jansen original Early 1980’s
Marie Verstegen is a multidisciplinary artist. He has made statues out of wood, plaster, bronze, marble and granite but has also painted with acrylic and oil as well as perfecting his skills in etching and woodcut. In 1976, he was accepted into the Art Academy in Eindhoven where he studied industrial design. Alongside regular classes, he found time
to qualify as a stone cutter. After obtaining both qualifications, he set sail for Venice, where he completed a third qualification, this time a degree in art restoration.
To Verstegen, art in the form of painting, sculpture and graphic design is as vitally important as eating, drinking, sleeping and breathing. Travel is a frequent theme in his work, in which he captures the feeling a traveller often gets - the inspiration to sketch and develop new ideas. Whether on the beach, in a museum, in busy shopping streets or on a random street corner in the city, Verstegen always knows how to lay his eyes on something inspiring. For him, a girl at a bus stop in a remote Dutch village can be just as inspiring as a three-week journey through China.
to qualify as a stone cutter. After obtaining both qualifications, he set sail for Venice, where he completed a third qualification, this time a degree in art restoration.
To Verstegen, art in the form of painting, sculpture and graphic design is as vitally important as eating, drinking, sleeping and breathing. Travel is a frequent theme in his work, in which he captures the feeling a traveller often gets - the inspiration to sketch and develop new ideas. Whether on the beach, in a museum, in busy shopping streets or on a random street corner in the city, Verstegen always knows how to lay his eyes on something inspiring. For him, a girl at a bus stop in a remote Dutch village can be just as inspiring as a three-week journey through China.
To him, art means looking at the spirit of the age and reflecting on it.
Private collectors, companies and governments have purchased Verstegen's work. He has exhibited worldwide and been awarded a large number of prizes. His work was selected for the 2017 Hida-Takayama International Contemporary Woodblock Print Triennial in Japan.
Follow me in Red
Dimensions 120 x 160 cm
Material Woodcut
Jan Jansen original Wooden Last
Dimensions 120 x 160 cm
Material Woodcut
Jan Jansen original Wooden Last
Verstegen has developed a group of woodcuts for ‘Jan Jansen Shoe Treasures’. They all derive from a single source of inspiration - Jan Jansen's shoes. To ensure he understood the shoe, Verstegen took it apart completely and started rebuilding it piece by piece. In doing so, he created a visual image with the last and his own interpretation. He let himself be inspired by different elements such as patches of leather and parts of the original pattern. In his mind, he asked himself several questions: who wears these shoes? Where are they going? What road are they taking and what feeling accompanies that?
Growing Up, Believe and Follow Me emerged out of the research Verstegen did on the shoe, the larger woodcuts Follow me in Yellow and Follow me in Red express more of an emotional aspect of the visual image.
The way Verstegen breathes, dreams and lives art is the way Jan Jansen breathes, dreams and lives shoes. Two very different subjects, yet they meet in the middle. That natural knack for precision that Jansen uses to cut his patterns is the very same that Verstegen uses in his woodcuts. Love of their craft is something both artists fully stand for.
‘I admire Jan’s curiosity, how he each time starts all over again with new designs.’
Growing up
Dimensions 50 x 64 cm
Material Woodcut
Jan Jansen original 1972
Dimensions 50 x 64 cm
Material Woodcut
Jan Jansen original 1972
Follow me
Dimensions 50 x 64 cm
Material Woodcut
Jan Jansen original 1972
Dimensions 50 x 64 cm
Material Woodcut
Jan Jansen original 1972
Follow me in Yellow
Dimensions 120 x 160 cm
Material Woodcut
Jan Jansen original Wooden Last
Dimensions 120 x 160 cm
Material Woodcut
Jan Jansen original Wooden Last