Jan Schoonhoven (1914-1994)

R56-1 is one of the first reliefs ever created by Jan Schoonhoven. A papier-mâché concoction of matchstick boxes and toilet paper rolls gives the piece a rough and earthy texture that drastically separates it from Schoonhoven’s later oeuvre by revealing the artist’s hand to the viewer. It is evidence of the very early development of Schoonhoven’s Nul principles. The Dutch Nul Group, to which Schoonhoven was a founding member, would go on to seek to detach artist from artwork, preferring repetitious productions without a personal signature. The present work’s use of readymade materials and geometric patterns are both characteristics that recur in Schoonhoven’s later works. Its tactile surface, however, as well as the lines that appear to be incised by the artist’s own finger, and an apparent signature in the lower right, distinguish R56-1 from works produced in the later stages of his career. One of the more remarkable deviations from Dutch Nul ideals, which emphasised a detachment from context and place, appears in the lower right corner of the canvas: an upper-case ‘D’, perhaps in reference to the artist’s hometown of Delft. R56-1 is a rare and intimate legacy of Schoonhoven’s early work.