Adriaan Lubbers (Amsterdam 1892 - New York City 1954) situates the viewer in the midst of a wintry Central Park, New York (1929). The paint is handled in a pronounced impasto, and, in an impressionistic idiom, we see monumental skyscrapers rise towards the sky. Lubbers originally trained as a mechanical engineer. Largely self- taught as a painter, he developed his artistic practice with the encouragement and advice of fellow artists, among them the innovative modernist Leo Gestel. A cosmopolitan and indefatigable traveller, Lubbers journeyed to South America following his studies, and subsequently visited Germany, Italy (in the company of Gestel), and Paris, where he became friends with Piet Mondriaan. New York in particular, where he arrived by steamship in 1916, made a lasting impression and remained his primary source of inspiration. A renewed stay in the Big Apple followed in the late 1920s. His paintings are notable for the dominant linearity of skyscrapers and bridges, as well as for their depiction of industrialization, automobiles, and bustling urban activity. Although Lubbers’ work attracted considerable attention in France and the United States, he remained comparatively little known in the Netherlands for an extended period. A series of later exhibitions contributed to a reassessment of his oeuvre.
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52 Adriaan Lubbers (1892-1954) Winter in Central Park, New York oil on canvas, 81x60 cm
Literature: -Gemeentemuseum De Wieger, ‘Adriaan Lubbers (1892- 1954) : ...zie hier mijn nieuw adres...’, Deurne 1988, p. 49, ill. no. 40, as: ’Central Park, 1929, olieverf op doek 81x60 cm, Coll. J. Vecht, Amsterdam’; included in catalogue list on p. 68, no. 36 (ill. no. 40). -Ann Blokland, ‘Adriaan Lubbers (1892-1954), tussen Nederland en New York’, Laren 1999, p. 75, no. 22, as: ‘Central Park, 1929, private collection’. Provenance: -With Frans Buffa & Zonen, Amsterdam (stamp on the reverse), 1933, no. 5 or 6 in the exhibition list, both as: ‘Central Park’. -With Kunsthandel J. Vecht, Amsterdam, by 1988. -With Kunsthandel Hasenbos, Eindhoven (label attached to the reverse), where acquired by the present owner in circa 1995.
Painted in 1929.
€10,000 - €15,000
Exhibited: -Deurne, Gemeente Museum de Wieger, ‘Adriaan Lubbers (1892-1954), …zie hier mijn nieuw adres…’, 20 May-17 July 1988, no. 36. -New York, Museum of the City of New York, ‘Adriaan Lubbers in New York’, 10 March-23 August 1992 (label attached to the reverse). -Laren, Singer Museum, ‘Adriaan Lubbers (1892-1954), tussen Nederland en New York’, 28 November 1999-20 February 2000, no. 22.
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