Jan Bontjes van Beek in Höhr-Grenzhausen

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Jan Bontjes van Beek was an influential figure of early German studio ceramics. He was born of Dutch parents in Denmark in 1899, but moved to Germany in 1905 and acquired German nationality in 1907. After developing a love of art, he moved to the artist community of Worpswede near Bremen and then on to nearby Fischerhude, where he was introduced to ceramics. In 1920, he married the dancer and sculptor Olga Breling and together they had three children. However, the marriage ended in divorce. In 1933 he married the architect Rahel Maria Weisbach and established a ceramic studio in the Berlin borough of Charlottenburg. Bontjes van Beek and his youngest daughter Cato were fierce opponents of National Socialism and both were arrested by the Gestapo in 1942. Although he was released due to lack of evidence, his daughter was guillotined in the notorious Plötzensee prison. He was then forced to join the Wehrmacht and sent to fight on the Eastern Front, where he was taken prisoner by the Russians. After the war, Bontjes van Beek began a teaching career, first in Berlin and then as Professor of Ceramics at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. Jan Bontjes van Beek died in 1969.

The exhibition is accompanied by works by Christine Atmer de Reig, Antje Brüggemann, Volker Ellwanger, Martin Schlotz and Barbara Stehr as representatives of the significant influence Jan Bontjes van Beek had on German studio ceramics. There is also a book being published to accompany the exhibition and is edited by the museum’s director Nele van Wieringen (ISBN 978-3-89790-752-2).

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Keramikmuseum Westerwald
Lindenstraße 13
56203 Höhr-Grenzhausen
www.keramikmuseum.de/