Hubbry Logo
LucebertLucebertMain
Open search
Lucebert
Community hub
Lucebert
logo
8 pages, 0 posts
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Lucebert
Lucebert
from Wikipedia

Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk (15 September 1924 – 10 May 1994), known professionally as Lucebert (Dutch: [ˈlysəbɛrt]),[1] was a Dutch artist who first became known as the poet of the COBRA movement.

Key Information

He was born in Amsterdam in 1924. He entered the Institute for Arts and Crafts in 1938 and took part in the first exhibition of the COBRA group at the Stedelijk Museum in 1949.

Biography

[edit]

Lucebert's talent was discovered when he started working for his father after school. After half a year of art school, he chose to be homeless between 1938 and 1947. In 1947, a Franciscan convent offered him a roof over his head, in exchange for a huge mural painting. Because the nuns could not appreciate his work, they had it entirely painted over with white paint.

He belonged to the Dutch literary movement of De Vijftigers, which was greatly influenced by the European avant-garde movement COBRA. Lucebert's early work especially shows this influence, and his art in general reflects a rather pessimistic outlook on life.

His strong personality appealed to many. As a poet he laid foundation for revolutionary innovation in Dutch poetry.

Most of his poems were collected in Gedichten 1948–1965. After this period of composing poetry, he worked primarily in the visual arts known as figurative-expressionist from the 1960s. His work is being translated to English on collected works.[2]

Lucebert's sentence "Alles van waarde is weerloos" ("All things of value are helpless") on a building in Rotterdam

Well known is his line "Alles van waarde is weerloos" from the poem De zeer oude zingt ("The very old one sings"). The adjective "weerloos" means "defenseless", "unable to defend oneself", so the meaning is "All things of value are defenseless". This line was put on top of the office building of an insurance company in Rotterdam (near the Blaak station) in neon letters, including his name, sometime in the 1980s or earlier. It wasn't the first but is certainly the most prominent commercial use of the line; today three more buildings in the area display it on their walls. Similarly, written on the city's central library just across the street is "Heel de wereld is mijn vaderland – Erasmus", "All the world is my fatherland – Erasmus".

Attracted by the Mediterranean light and the vibrant community of Dutch artists, Lucebert and his wife Tony Swaanswijk moved to Altea, Spain in 1963, before eventually settling in Jávea in 1968, where they found both a home and a space for artistic creation. In 1973, in the Lluca district of Jávea, they bought a house which also served as Lucebert's studio, became a significant site for the creation of numerous works that showcased his creativity and talent.[3]

Lucebert's strong connection with Spain was further solidified through his close relationship with artist and art collector Antonio Pérez. This relationship led to a permanent exhibition of Lucebert's work in Cuenca, Spain. Following Lucebert's death, his widow, Tony, made a significant donation to the Antonio Pérez Foundation in Cuenca.[4] This donation included a room dedicated to Lucebert, intended to exhibit part of the donated works, thereby preserving and showcasing Lucebert's artistic legacy in Spain.

Lucebert died on 10 May 1994 in Alkmaar, Netherlands.

Lucebert was also a noted anti-apartheid activist.[5]

Exhibitions

[edit]
  • 1949 – International Exhibition of Experimental Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 1959 – Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 1959 – Documenta, Kassel, Germany
  • 1959 – First Paris Biennale, Paris, France
  • 1959 – Vitalita nell’Arte, Venice, Italy
  • 1961 – Stedelijk van Abbe-Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands
  • 1961 – International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
  • 1963 – Staedtlische Kunstgalerie, Bochum, Germany
  • 1963 – Marlborough New London Gallery, London
  • 1964 – Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Kunsthalle Baden-Baden
  • 1964 – Documenta 111, Kassel, Germany
  • 1969 – Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
  • 1969 – Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland – with Karel Appel and Tajiri
  • 1977 – Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 1977 – Galería Juana Mordó, Madrid, Spain
  • 1982 – Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Germany
  • 1983 – Kunstverein Hochrhein, Bad Säckingen, Germany
  • 1984 – Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 1985 – Rai, Kunstmesse Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 1987 – Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 1988 – Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Kunstverein Freiburg i.Br., Germany
  • 1988 – Landesmuseum Oldenburg, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria
  • 1989 – Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany
  • 1989 – Städtische Kunstgalerie, Bochum, Germany
  • 1989 – Kunsthaus Grenchen, Grenchen, Switzerland
  • 1996 – Después de Goya Art Exhibition, Zaragoza, Spain
  • 2000 – IVAM, Valencia, Spain
  • 2001 – Lucebert Room (Standing Collection), Fundación Antonio Pérez, Cuenca, Spain

Awards

[edit]
  • 1954 – Prize for literature from the city of Amsterdam
  • 1959 – "Mediterranean Prize" of the Paris Biennale
  • 1962 – 2nd "Marzotto Prize"
  • 1964 – "Carlo Cardazzo" prize at the 32nd Biennale in Venice, Italy
  • 1965 – "Constantijn Huygensprijs"
  • 1967 – "P.C. Hooftprijs" – the highest Dutch Governmental prize for literature
  • 1983 – "Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren" for Dutch literature

Public collections

[edit]

Among the public collections holding works by Lucebert Swaanswijk are:

Notes

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia
from Grokipedia
''Lucebert'' (pseudonym of Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk; 15 September 1924 – 10 May 1994) was a Dutch poet and painter known for his influential contributions to post-war experimental poetry and expressive visual art, particularly as a member of the CoBrA movement and a leading figure in the Vijftigers literary group. Born in Amsterdam, he adopted the pseudonym Lucebert and emerged in the early 1950s as a prominent voice in the Dutch avant-garde, producing innovative poetry marked by spontaneity, paradox, and a rejection of conventional lyricism while simultaneously developing an expressive body of paintings, drawings, and other works. His dual practice intertwined poetry and visual art, often through picture-poems, and reflected themes of direct experience, mysticism, and the tension between light and darkness. Lucebert received prestigious Dutch awards for both his poetry and visual arts, including the Poetry Prize of the City of Amsterdam in 1954, and his works were featured in major international exhibitions such as Documenta, the Venice Biennale, and the Bienal de São Paulo. After a period of relative poetic silence from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, during which he focused on painting, he resumed publishing poetry in the 1980s. Widely regarded as one of the most influential Dutch artists of the second half of the 20th century, his work across multiple media—including ceramics and photography—appeals to broad audiences and is held in prominent collections such as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Cobra Museum.

Early Life

Birth and Family Background

Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk, who adopted the professional pseudonym Lucebert, was born on September 15, 1924, in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. He was born into a working-class family in Amsterdam, with his father running a house-painting business in the Jordaan district. This modest upbringing was marked by early poverty in the city.

Education and Early Artistic Interests

Lucebert, born Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk, developed interests in painting and literature from an early age. He gained practical knowledge of the painter's craft during his youth, including techniques for layering colors, while working in his father's house-painting business in Amsterdam's Jordaan district. In 1938, at age 14, Lucebert enrolled at the Amsterdam Institute for Applied Art (Rijksinstituut voor Kunstnijverheidsonderwijs), but he left after only six months due to financial pressures. Thereafter, Lucebert remained largely self-taught in both drawing and poetry. His early experiments in visual art and poetic expression occurred in the pre-war years, with his talent for drawing evident during his teenage period. Wartime experiences further shaped his creativity; in 1943, while in Germany, he encountered the Romantic poet Friedrich Hölderlin in the public library at Dessau, an encounter that provided profound and lifelong inspiration for his own poetic work.

CoBrA Movement

Joining and Role in CoBrA

Lucebert joined the CoBrA movement in 1948 after Gerrit Kouwenaar discovered his experimental poetry, which prompted his membership in the Dutch Experimental Group before it integrated into the international CoBrA collective. The CoBrA group, founded that same year in Paris by artists from Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands, emphasized spontaneous creation and a rejection of traditional forms, aligning with Lucebert's own innovative poetic experiments. While most CoBrA members, including Karel Appel and Corneille, concentrated on visual arts, Lucebert served as a key poet, contributing a literary dimension to its interdisciplinary activities. He actively participated in CoBrA's early publications and exhibitions from 1948 to 1949, publishing his writings in the group's journal and presenting his work at key events. Notably, at the group's 1949 International Exhibition of Experimental Art at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Lucebert installed his poems as scraps of paper pinned to a cage-like structure known as the "poet's cage," highlighting his distinctive role in blending poetry with the movement's visual and performative elements. This involvement reinforced CoBrA's shared commitment to freedom of expression and experimentation, which profoundly influenced Lucebert's development as an artist-poet during this period.

Key Contributions During CoBrA

Lucebert's contributions during his brief CoBrA period (1948–1949) focused primarily on his innovative poetry, which he integrated with the group's experimental spirit through publications, exhibitions, and performances, though his active participation ended amid disputes. He published his writings in the CoBrA journal, contributing to the movement's fusion of poetry and visual art. In 1948, he joined the Dutch Experimental Group, which aligned with CoBrA. In 1949, Lucebert participated prominently in the major CoBrA exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where he displayed his poems in an unconventional installation called the "poet's cage"—scraps of paper pinned to a cage-like construction. He also introduced and organized an evening of experimental poetry readings for participating poets during the exhibition, framing the event as a revival of dadaistic and expressionistic experiments and describing the poets as literary "nudists" seeking naked expression. This poetry evening, however, escalated into commotion and a fight after a lengthy speech by Christian Dotremont, resulting in negative press and internal group tensions. Lucebert's work during this time emphasized unrestrained pleasure in language, experimental freedom, and a rejection of traditional aesthetic constraints, aligning with CoBrA's vitality and rebellious drive while encouraging his full commitment to linguistic innovation alongside fellow poets such as Gerrit Kouwenaar, Jan Elburg, and others. His brief involvement, including collaborations with visual artists through group exhibitions and the magazine, highlighted spontaneous and experimental approaches in poetry that complemented CoBrA's childlike and primal ethos. Following the 1949 incident and resulting disputes—including Constant's demand for his departure—Lucebert left the movement in 1949.

Poetry Career

Debut and Poetic Development

Lucebert's poetic debut emerged in the late 1940s following World War II, when his talent as a poet became known beyond a small circle of friends and CoBrA associates. He made a striking public appearance in 1948, reading his politically charged poem "Loveletter to our tortured bride Indonesia" in Amsterdam, marking an early moment of visibility for his verse. By mid-1948, close colleagues were already aware of his poetic abilities alongside his painting, though his work remained largely hidden from wider audiences until the breakthrough of experimental poetry around 1951. In this period, Lucebert developed a highly experimental and associative style that rejected traditional forms, including regular meter, rhyme, and punctuation in favor of free, spontaneous expression. His poetry featured frequent neologisms, ambiguous words capable of multiple grammatical functions, and raw, associative leaps that prioritized sound, rhythm, and wordplay over logical clarity. This approach embraced the material richness and inherent ambiguity of language, often creating deliberate difficulty to challenge readers rather than provide comfort. Influenced by surrealism's emphasis on the unconscious, Dada's irreverence, and the CoBrA movement's commitment to instinctive creativity, Lucebert's early verse incorporated raw imagery drawn from the abject and cosmic alike, blending provocation with profound linguistic exploration. His rejection of conventional poetic beauty—viewing it as exhausted or deceptive—aligned with a broader postwar impulse to startle and unsettle, establishing him as a transformative voice in Dutch literature.

Major Works and Style

Lucebert's poetic output in the early 1950s marked a pivotal moment in Dutch literature, with several groundbreaking collections published in rapid succession that established his reputation as a leading voice among the Vijftigers. Notable among these are Triangel in de jungle / De dieren der democratie (1951), which introduced his distinctive blend of social satire and linguistic invention, alongside Apocrief / De analphabetische naam (1952), which further developed his experimental approach. These early works, often described as an "explosive" beginning to his career, featured bold innovations in form and language that broke from traditional poetic conventions. Lucebert's style is characterized by playful, ironic, and highly experimental language, drawing on spontaneous creativity and a profound engagement with words as material. He frequently employed neologisms, fragmented syntax, and rich imagery to challenge conventional structures, creating a sense of absurdity and linguistic freedom that reflected his avant-garde ethos. Themes in his poetry often encompass social critique, political engagement, the absurdity of human existence, and an exploration of nature and democratic ideals, infused with both lyrical tenderness and dark, demonic undertones. His work emphasized experience and direct dialogue with language, positioning poetry as an immediate, transformative act rather than a polished artifact. As a central figure in postwar Dutch poetry, Lucebert exerted significant influence on subsequent generations through his rejection of rigid forms and his embrace of spontaneity, earning him acclaim as the "Emperor" of the Vijftigers and a major innovator who renewed poetic expression in the Netherlands during the 1950s. His collections from this period, later gathered in editions such as Gedichten 1948-1965, continue to be regarded as foundational to modern Dutch literature for their audacious creativity and enduring vitality.

Visual Arts Career

Painting and Drawing Evolution

Lucebert, initially recognized for his poetry within the CoBrA movement, began developing his painting practice in the late 1940s, with pictorial work gaining importance alongside his poetry. In the 1950s he produced expressionist works that created myths rooted in the human world and filled with literary allusions, while continuing poetic output early in the decade. His paintings and drawings displayed great freedom and spontaneity, as he painted intuitively whatever came to mind without adhering to fixed motifs. From the 1950s onward, he built up drawings and gouaches from dots, lines, and scratches, over which he applied deliberately clumsy shapes of human bodies and fantasy creatures. This approach reflected CoBrA influences, featuring deliberately awkward human forms, fantasy creatures, contrasting colors, and spontaneous brushwork that conveyed revolutionary and experimental qualities. From the 1960s onward, Lucebert's work evolved toward a caricatural and demonic vision of the world, characterized by distorted faces, human monsters, and an ironic perspective that persisted until his death in 1994, following a brief period revisiting child-like CoBrA elements. He frequently worked in mixed media, incorporating lithography, etching, silkscreen printing, oil painting, watercolors, and drawings to support his expressive and instinctive output. His mature style emphasized forceful black outlines and fluent line drawing, often combining apparent chaos with deliberate composition, while continuing to experiment with vivid or subdued color palettes.

Notable Exhibitions and Recognition

Lucebert's visual art gained substantial recognition in the late 1950s and 1960s through participation in major international exhibitions. His first solo exhibition occurred in 1958 at Galerie Escape in Haarlem. He featured in Documenta II in Kassel in 1959 (where he received the Mediterranean Prize at the associated Paris Biennale context), the Biennale de la Jeunesse in Paris (prize recipient), Vitalità nell’Arte in Venice in 1959, an international exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1961, and Documenta III in Kassel in 1964 (where he received the Carlo Cardazzo prize at the Venice Biennale that year). A retrospective of his work was organized at the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in 1961. Additional significant group shows included the Venice Biennale (both national pavilion and international exhibition), the Bienal de São Paulo, and exhibitions in Japan, Italy, and Germany. His paintings, drawings, and other works are held in prominent institutional collections, reflecting sustained art world interest. These include the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Cobra Museum of Modern Art in Amstelveen, IVAM in Valencia, the Kunsthalle Bremen (with a nearly complete collection of his graphic works), and other museums such as the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Modern Art. Posthumously, major exhibitions have continued to highlight his contributions. The 2000 show "Lucebert: The Tyranny of Freedom" at IVAM in Valencia presented 146 drawings and paintings, many created during his long periods in Spain between 1964 and 1994. In 2002, SMAK in Ghent mounted "The illuminating light in the darkness," an episodic exhibition examining his mastery of line in portraits and graphic works, his raw political and poetical themes in series such as De Ketters (1981), and his ongoing experimentation with color. His oeuvre maintains an active secondary market presence, with works regularly offered through galleries such as Jaski Gallery in Amsterdam and auction houses, where prices reflect enduring demand for his expressive pieces.

Later Years and Honors

Post-CoBrA Work and Life

After the dissolution of the CoBrA group in 1951, Lucebert relocated to Bergen in North Holland, where he initially established his home and studio. He continued to work in both poetry and visual art, treating them as complementary, though from the mid-1960s he focused more on painting during a period of reduced poetic output. Later, in the 1960s, he moved to Spain, settling in Jávea (Xàbia) by 1968, where he maintained a studio and residence alongside his ties to the Netherlands. This period marked his development as an independent artist, pursuing personal experimental styles in both media.

Awards and Cultural Impact

Lucebert received some of the highest literary honors in the Netherlands, recognizing his transformative contributions to poetry. In 1965, he was awarded the Constantijn Huygensprijs for his entire oeuvre. Two years later, in 1967 (with the ceremonial presentation in 1968), he received the P.C. Hooft-prijs, the premier Dutch state prize for literature, for his poetic body of work; the jury unanimously described him as not only one of the most important poets of the century but also among the very few who could be ranked alongside the finest international poets. He had earlier won the Poetry Prize of the City of Amsterdam on multiple occasions, including in 1954. In 1983, Lucebert was awarded the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren, the triennial highest honor for Dutch-language literature from both the Netherlands and Flanders. The award highlighted his revolutionary renewal of Dutch poetry through highly free language use, disregard for conventional grammar in favor of sound correspondences, and sharp critique of bourgeois mentality. One of his most iconic lines, "Alles van waarde is weerloos" (Everything of value is defenseless), from his collection De zeer oude zingt, exemplifies the philosophical depth that contributed to his enduring resonance. In 1990, he received the Jacobus van Looy-prijs, recognizing his dual mastery as both poet and visual artist. Lucebert also earned significant recognition for his visual art, including participation in major international platforms such as Documenta in Kassel, the Paris Biennale, and the Venice Biennale, where his work drew widespread acclaim. He received prestigious Dutch awards for his paintings, drawings, ceramics, and other media, reflecting his open and experimental approach that appealed to broad audiences. His cultural impact remains profound: regarded as one of the greatest Dutch poets since World War II, Lucebert's avant-garde innovations in language and imagery, rooted in his CoBrA affiliations and Vijftigers movement leadership, fundamentally reshaped post-war Dutch literature and visual arts, with his works translated into multiple languages and held in leading museums worldwide. His legacy endures through ongoing exhibitions and publications. Lucebert died on May 10, 1994, in Alkmaar, Netherlands.

Film and Television Involvement

Writing Credits

Lucebert's involvement in writing for film and television was minimal, largely limited to the inclusion of his poetry in broadcast formats rather than original screenplays or scripts. His primary documented writing credit comes from the long-running Belgian-Dutch television series Poëzie in 625 lijnen, a program dedicated to presenting poetry that began airing in 1955. In a 1964 episode, he is credited as the author of the poem "school der poëzie / Ik tracht op poëtische wijze," which was featured in the series. No additional writing credits for film or television projects appear in major databases such as IMDb, underscoring that Lucebert's creative output in moving-image media remained secondary to his established work in poetry and visual arts.

Documentaries and Media Appearances

Lucebert's artistic persona and contributions to poetry and visual arts have been examined in a number of documentaries, several of which were created by filmmaker Johan van der Keuken, a longtime associate who drew significant inspiration from Lucebert's work. Van der Keuken's films on Lucebert began with Lucebert, poet-painter (1962). An early example is the 1967 experimental documentary A Film for Lucebert, directed by van der Keuken, which focuses on Lucebert as both a painter and poet during his active years. Following Lucebert's death in 1994, van der Keuken completed Lucebert, Time and Farewell (original title: Lucebert, tijd en afscheid), a 52-minute Dutch documentary structured as a personal cinematographic triptych that compiles three short films spanning 32 years: Lucebert, poet-painter (1962), A Film for Lucebert (1967), and a new segment shot in Lucebert's studio after his death, serving as a farewell to his recently deceased friend and colleague. The film combines biographical reflection with artistic analysis, highlighting Lucebert's influence as one of the most important poets in Dutch literature and a prominent visual artist associated with the CoBrA movement. A later documentary, Looking for Lucebert (2003), directed by Hans Quatfass, is a 52-minute Dutch production that further examines aspects of Lucebert's life and legacy. Lucebert also made occasional appearances as himself in television literary programs, including an episode of Vergeet niet te lezen on 27 December 1965. Beyond these, his work has occasionally been featured or referenced in other media contexts, though no major scripted roles or extensive involvement in film production are documented.

Death and Legacy

Death

Lucebert died on May 10, 1994, at the age of 69 in Alkmaar, North Holland, Netherlands. He had resided in Bergen during his later years following his CoBrA period. He passed away from cancer.

Legacy and Influence

Lucebert's legacy endures as one of the foremost figures in postwar Dutch poetry and experimental visual art, celebrated for his pioneering role as the poet-painter of the CoBrA movement and a central member of De Vijftigers. His revolutionary poetry introduced experimental forms and an unrestrained approach to language that exerted considerable influence on Dutch literature after the 1950s, revitalizing poetic expression in the postwar era. This fusion of poetic and visual experimentation also shaped the development of abstract and expressive art within the CoBrA group, where his works featuring mythical beings, monsters, and distorted figures reflected a shared emphasis on spontaneity and outsider-inspired creativity. More than three decades after his death, Lucebert's oeuvre continues to inspire ongoing exhibitions, scholarly studies, and contemporary reinterpretations that affirm his lasting impact on both art and poetry. Posthumous retrospectives, such as the 2000 exhibition "The Tyranny of Freedom" at IVAM featuring drawings, poems, and paintings, and the 2025 "Lucebert X it is part of an ensemble" at the Cobra Museum, which explores metamorphosis and new perspectives through collaborations with contemporary collectives, highlight the persistent relevance of his experimental style. His former home and studio in Bergen functions as an active site for preserving and studying his sources of inspiration, while previously unseen works from private collections occasionally surface in these presentations, sustaining interest in his market and institutional presence. Lucebert's multifaceted legacy has also prompted renewed scholarly and public discussions, particularly following revelations in 2018 about aspects of his early life—including youthful Nazi sympathies and wartime activities in Nazi Germany as detailed in a biography—which have led to reexaminations of his work and its cultural significance. Despite this, his contributions as a CoBrA poet-painter remain foundational to understandings of postwar European avant-garde movements, with his poetry and art continuing to be collected, analyzed, and exhibited internationally.

References

Add your contribution
Related Hubs
User Avatar
No comments yet.