Anneke van der Fee
Biography
Anneke van der Feer was born in 1902 in the Dutch province of Friesland and moved to Amsterdam in 1925 to become an artist, she lived in the attic of Warmoesstraat 10.
She took painting lessons from Harmen Meurs and soon became part of a group of politically engaged artists. At that time she met Joris Ivens, she was 23 years old, Anneke van der Feer was what you might call an activist. He was then 27 years old, he lived on the Damrak, he was the director of the photography shop C.A.P. Ivens & Co in Kalverstraat and was at the beginning of his career as a director.
Anneke is a member of the artists’ association De Onafhankelijken (The Independents). The association was far removed from the established views on art and culture and, with its exhibitions without a jury, promoted complete artistic freedom. The association’s exhibitions were in line with their quest for political freedom, thus allowing for the representation of multiple artistic movements.
In the early years, works by international avant-garde artists from countries such as Germany and France, including Wassily Kandinsky and Marc Chagall, were exhibited. Van der Feer helped organize the biennial exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum, for which she submitted her own works.
In Amsterdam, she regularly sold paintings, drawings and prints. In the late 1920s, she came into contact with painters, filmmakers and photographers, including Charley Toorop, Mark Kolthoff, Chris Beekman, Nola Hatterman, Ger Gerrits. During her life, private individuals and museums bought her works, she exhibited regularly, but she had to struggle to earn a living and her income was full of ups and downs.
Her works included oil paintings, charcoal drawings, lithographs and watercolours. She painted according to reality, in the style of De Nieuwe Zakelijkheid (New Objectivity). In 1929, for the considerable sum of 350 guilders, the Stedelijk Museum bought the View of the Central Station, which she painted in her studio on the Warmoesstraat.
In 1934/35 Anneke van der Feer moved to Moscow with her partner Ivens and became a member of the Moscow Artists’ Union. In Russia the artist documented the daily work of people, especially in factories, with her works. After a year and a half, Ivens left for the United States, while she remained in Moscow until 1938, but their lives continued to cross paths several times over the years; they helped and supported each other. This is evident from the letters Anneke sent him between 1940 and 1955, preserved in the Joris Ivens Archive. In them she wrote about her work, exhibitions, and mutual friends.
Since returning from Russia she has studied painting at the Académie Libre in Paris. The artist expresses her social commitment in the works she creates, whether they are portraits of neighbors, friends, children, or factory workers in Moscow, peat cutters in Drenthe, brewers in Amsterdam. Back in Amsterdam she financed her living through translation and artistic work. Anneke van der Feer was a staunch opponent of National Socialism.
She fought for equality and women’s emancipation and placed great importance on women’s independence. She refused to join the “Nederlandsche Kulturkamer” which prevented her from exhibiting. The Kulturkamer was an institution of control and censorship founded by the German occupiers after the occupation of the Netherlands by the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War.
After the War, in May 1945 Anneke van der Feer was one of the founders and a member of the board of directors of the Professional Association of Visual Artists (BBK), she was head of the Contraprestatie, a program she used until her death: paintings and drawings, which she handed over in exchange for financial support, are still exhibited in government buildings today, but some works from museum collections have inexplicably disappeared.
From 1950 she spent the summers and autumns in the artists’ village of Veere. Together with her friend, the sculptor and painter Herman Schutte, she lived in a small house in the Kraanstraat, near the quay of the fishing port. She also remained active in the cultural life of Amsterdam and exhibited, among others, at the Fodor Museum. Anneke van der Feer had a chronic heart disease that led to her death in 1956. After her death, her works are almost completely absent from exhibitions, she falls into oblivion. A hundred years after the beginning of her career, interest is renewing and her work is finally being considered with the attention it deserves.
Curriculum
Dal 1926 Anneke van der Feer espone regolarmente con De Onafhankelijken allo Stedelijk Museum di Amsterdam e con lo Zeeuwse Kunstenaarskring
1926, 1927, 1928: De Onafhankelijken Museo Stedelijk, Amsterdam
1928 Sint Lucas, Museo Stedelijk, Amsterdam
1929 Erich Wichman e tijdgenooten, Museo Stedelijk, Amsterdam
Kunstenaarsvereniging Sint Lucas , Museo Stedelijk, Amsterdam
De Onafhankelijken , Museo Stedelijk, Amsterdam
1930 De Onafhankelijken: incontrato inviti, Fransche e surrealisti belgi, Museo Stedelijk, Amsterdam
1930 Kunstenaarsvereniging Sint Lucas , Museo Stedelijk, Amsterdam
1931 De Onafhankelijken , Museo Stedelijk, Amsterdam
1932Tentoonstelling van Nederlandsche Levende Kunstenaars Museo Stedelijk, Amsterdam
1941 De Onafhankelijken esporren werk van leden Museo Stedelijk, Amsterdam
1945 Arte nell’Harnas , Museo Stedelijk, Amsterdam
1945 Arte a Vrijheid Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
1948 Amsterdamse schilds van nu , Museo Stedelijk, Amsterdam
1949 Honneur aux dames: werken van schildessen , Museo Fodor, Amsterdam
1952 Kunstenaars Zien de Haven di Amsterdam , Museo Fodor, Amsterdam
1999 Passaggi: Joris Ivens en de kunst van deze eeuw Nijmeegs Museum de Commanderie van Sint-Jan, Nijmegen
2009 Domburgse Dames e Veerse Joffers Museo Marie Tak van Poortvliet Domburg la mostra
2009 Mostra sui Veerse Joffers. Museo Schotse Huis
Laundresses
oil on canvas – 70.3x 60.1cm
Ritratto
1940 – paints the portrait of David Cornelis – Leiden University Library collection Anneke van der Feer
