Jaap Nanninga Dutch, 1904-1962

Jaap Nanninga (1904-1962) was drawn to painting and drawing from an early age. Initially he worked as an advertising designer and did not begin as an artist until he was older. After travelling through Germany and Poland, Nanninga settled in The Hague in 1938. He had studied with Hendrik Werkman and Jan Wiegers in Groningen and also in Paris after the war with Geer van Velde, who encouraged him in abstract painting; under the influence of Cubism and the abstract movements in France his own paintings started to be abstract from around 1949.

The young CoBrA group invited him to join their movement, but he intentionally kept his distance from them. Nanninga was emphatically a colourist, looking for a completely individualistic and poetic visual language. Oriental mysticism and 'primitive cultures' inspired him. He was a member of the 'Liga Nieuw Beelden' from 1955. His abstract work possesses a robust design aesthetic with a wonderfully subtle and subdued effect. Nanninga died following an accident after visiting De Posthoorn café in The Hague in January 1962. His work is considered to belong to the Nieuwe Haagse School movement.