Joop Moesman

~ 1909 - 1988

Johannes Hendrikus (Joop) Moesman was a Dutch surreal painter, calligrapher, typographer and type designer. Initially he worked as a draftsman at the Dutch Railways.

His father, Johannes Anthonius Moesman, was a draftsman, lithographer, stone printer and amateur photographer. The self-taught Moesman visited Galerie Nord, run by the surrealist Willem Wagenaar, located in the Vinkenburgstraat. It was a stone's throw from his birthplace. There, he found a French magazine. In it, he discovered images of surreal painters. He became fascinated by this new movement and started working in a similar style. He became the most important surrealist painter in the Netherlands.

Moesman was considered a difficult man; always against everything, sullen, but progressive. He incorporated his sexual fantasies into his paintings and this often came under criticism. He was also accused of being a sadomasochist. He didn't deny that, but according to him it was nonsense that you read that from his paintings. He claimed that the images come from the subconscious. Surrealistic artists embraced this idea. He believed that you could not do anything about them. This gave him the opportunity to live out his sexual fantasies in his paintings.
"I am never cruel to animals, but I would like to torture a beautiful woman, a beautiful woman who loves it”, he said in 1966. A statement that rightly raises many eyebrows. And one that also causes a stir these days. There are people who believe that Moesman does not deserve a platform because of statements like this.

In the early 1960s, when the sexual revolution in the Netherlands dawned, he showed his fascination for sadomasochism in his art.

5 albums/51 artworks
Latest Update: March 5, 2025 -> Created new page for this artist (51 artworks)

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