- Jules de Goede
Jules de Goede (
20 May 1937 -19 September 2007 ) was a Dutchabstract art ist and art lecturer who spent most of his life inAustralia andEngland .Early life
De Goede was born in
Rotterdam , the first of his parents' seven children. His father was a carpenter with French and Dutch ancestry; his mother was a teacher of German descent. In 1939, they moved toWijchen , a village nearNijmegen to which de Goede's father was posted by theDutch Army . They remained there through the occupation of the Netherlands byNazi Germany .At the age of 14, de Goede gained a diploma in
decorative arts from theNijmegen Technical College with distinction, and a place at theArnhem Academy of Fine Arts ("Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten en Kunstnijverheid"), but was two years too young to start. In the meantime, he worked as a silkscreen printer. He studied at the Academy when he reached 16, but continued to work in the evenings, taking up a job in a packaging design agency. He also studied for one year atEindhoven School of Art .Move to Australia
De Goede's mother died in 1956 after a long illness, and he joined his family in emigrating to
Sydney ,Australia . Leaving the Netherlands also enabled him to avoid being conscripted into the Dutch Army.He continued to work in advertising in Australia, and also studied part-time at the
Julian Ashton Art School andDesiderius Orban School of Art, and then at theCanberra School of Art (now part of theAustralian National University ). He exhibited more than 30 times, including three solo exhibitions. Meanwhile, he worked for theAustralian News and Information Bureau , and theNational Capital Development Commission inCanberra .Later career in the UK
De Goede developed an interest in abstract art, and moved to
London in 1965, taking a flat inHolborn and an art studio at theSt Katharine Docks run byBridget Riley andPeter Sedgeley . After a property developer bought the dock, he moved to a large minimalist studio in a former Jewish school inStepney Green , east London, alongside the studios ofMichael Kenny andBert Irvin . The space taken by de Goede was formerly occupied by sculptorHubert Dalwood . De Goede was an early pioneer of opening his studio to the public. He joined theLondon Group in 1996, when he was also a finalist for theJerwood Prize . He was a founder member of theMovement for a Socialist Future (later merged intoA World to Win ) in 1999.De Goede also taught at
Hornsey College of Art innorth London (now part ofMiddlesex University ) from 1972, later becoming a senior lecturer. He retired in 2003, returning to work as a full-time artist.De Goede died from
cancer in London in 2007. He never married.Works
De Goede painted mostly abstract works, often large canvases confined to black and white lines and shapes, with visual
paradox es andillusion s, but also smaller works: prints, drawings and sculptures. Describing his work, de Goede said, "A reflection of the world like it visually appears is not quite enough ... Abstraction should bring forth another kind of reality. I try to show what is invisible." [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2183982,00.html Obituary, "The Guardian", 5 October 2007] (accessed 12 October 2007)] He joined many exhibitions between 1967 and 2005, with solo exhibitions at theGrabowski Gallery andHouse Gallery , theRiverside Studios inHammersmith , theOXO Gallery inSouth Kensington in 1982, and theStephen Lawrence Gallery atGreenwich University in 2005. He was also selected by theArts Council of Great Britain as one of five Dutch artists to exhibit at theSerpentine Gallery . His last exhibition, a solo exhibition entitled "Tracing the Black Hole", was held at theAngus Broadbent Gallery inBayswater in June 2006, accompanying the publication of a book byMel Gooding andCorinna Lotz documenting his life.References
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2183982,00.html Obituary, "The Guardian", 5 October 2007]
* [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2979859.ece Obituary, "The Independent", 5 October 2007]
* [http://www.aworldtowin.net/resources/JulesdeGoede.html Obituary]
* [http://www.broadbentgallery.com/de%20Goede/Tracing%20the%20Black%20Hole.pdf "Tracing the Black Hole"] , PDFExternal links
*http://www.thelondongroup.com/artists/deGoede.html
*http://www.broadbentgallery.com/exhib/exhib_degoede1.htm
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