The prominent Dutch designer Swip Stolk is known (amongmany other things) for his former role as
Art Director of VARA and as house designer at the Groningen Museum.
Art Director of VARA and as house designer at the Groningen Museum.
Stolk’s contact to Jansen dates back to the 60s – it is exactly 50 years since Swip Stolk met Jan Jansen in the Noord Hollands Kofiehuis, right opposite Arnhem's Central Station. Both gentlemen have fond memories of this magical and unforgettable meeting when their ideas about design, art and music seemed almost identical.
Together, they searched for solutions that were often spiritual and sometimes controversial in creative processes. Stolk became Jansen's go-to designer – he designed the now-famous Jan Jansen logo, for instance. The two also worked together on several house styles, a number of stores and the exhibition ‘Jan Jansen: Master of Shoe Design’ staged at the the Haags Gemeentemuseum.
Together, they searched for solutions that were often spiritual and sometimes controversial in creative processes. Stolk became Jansen's go-to designer – he designed the now-famous Jan Jansen logo, for instance. The two also worked together on several house styles, a number of stores and the exhibition ‘Jan Jansen: Master of Shoe Design’ staged at the the Haags Gemeentemuseum.
Stolk and Jansen combined forces in 2009 when they co-exhibited at the ‘Two Master Designers’ show in the Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen. This was a renewed confirmation of their special friendship.
‘Jan Jansen's shoe designs were never seasonal. Shoe for shoe, they have been unique and timeless masterpieces – hence also world famous.’
The objects that Swip has designed for ‘Jan Jansen Shoe Treasures’ are based on flashbacks of 50 years of friendship. Mutual connections that can be seen in Jansen and Stolk's work reappear and his work displays a combination of the various projects they have worked on together.
Stolk’s work has received numerous awards and is held both in private collections and in national and international museum collection. It has featured in a large number of group and solo exhibitions.