Nightlife – Han­ny Kore­vaar and Armand Bouten

Kindred spirits

As partners in life and in art, Hanny Korevaar and Armand Bouten developed an idiosyncratic oeuvre in which life on the margins of society takes centre stage. From the turbulent 1920s to the impoverished post-war period, both artists often turned their gaze to the city at night. Alleyways, cafés, terraces, dance halls and brothels form the backdrop for scenes of poverty, desire and vulnerability. Their unvarnished approach to nightlife made their work too daring for many contemporaries.

For a long time, moreover, their art remained out of public view. True to their independent spirit, Korevaar and Bouten did not join artists' associations, exhibited rarely, and spent a large part of their lives abroad. They needed little beyond each other and their art.

The early years

Hanny Korevaar and Armand Bouten met around 1915 in Amsterdam, where they studied at the Rijksnormaalschool voor Teekenonderwijs. Gradually, their attention shifted from still lifes and rural scenes to the city's nightlife. They felt at home in life outside the established order. Colours became brighter, forms more angular, and heavy outlines made their paintings even more powerful. Their work aligns with innovative European art movements such as the colourful French Fauvism and German and Flemish Expressionism. By Dutch standards, the work is remarkably direct and uninhibited. Korevaar encountered prevailing ideas about what was considered suitable art for women artists. Her expressive style and daring subjects stand out and were far ahead of their time.

Wanderlust

From late 1922, the newly married Hanny Korevaar and Armand Bouten travelled through South-East Europe. Hungary in particular, and the Roma communities they met there, strongly fired their imagination. From that point onwards, folk art and people of different ethnicities took a prominent place in their work. In 1924, Korevaar and Bouten moved to artistic Paris. Here, both artists captured the poverty and the glamour of the 1920s. They produced a great deal of new work and were clearly aware of the latest developments in modern art.

Bouten drew inspiration from key figures of the so-called School of Paris, such as Marc Chagall. He also experimented with movements such as Dada, Cubism, Futurism and Surrealism. In fragmentary compositions, he depicted the hectic life of the big city. Korevaar found her way towards Surrealism, in which people, animals and urban elements merge into enigmatic figures. Although they enjoyed happy years in Paris, a darker note gradually crept into their work. Bouten's scenes grew more sombre, with emaciated bodies and lonely figures. Korevaar's alienating, dreamlike tableaux seem to turn into nightmares.

Who is the artist: Korevaar or Bouten?

The exhibition is not only an introduction to Hanny Korevaar and Armand Bouten. It also raises a question that has occupied experts for quite some time: who made what? Because Korevaar's and Bouten's subjects and style strongly overlap, it is not easy to distinguish their work. Moreover, they did not always sign and date their paintings and drawings.

Did Korevaar really stop painting in the 1930s? Might they have worked together on certain works? Or have some artworks been wrongly attributed to Bouten? Nightlife - Hanny Korevaar and Armand Bouten challenges visitors to look critically, compare, and form their own judgement.

Back to Venlo after 100 years

During their lives, Hanny Korevaar and Armand Bouten exhibited together only three times: twice in Amsterdam (1922 and 1924) and once in Venlo (1924). For Korevaar, these would prove to be the only occasions on which her work was exhibited during her lifetime. The Venlo exhibition took place in café-restaurant National, a stately celebration venue directly opposite what is now museum van Bommel van Dam, later destroyed by fire. More than one hundred years later, their work returns to almost exactly the same place.