^{THE PAST      THE PRESENT}    

                                          

---

 

Matthijs van Dam

(1943-1998)

 

Peter Jansen and Matthijs van Dam met as professors of art at the Acadamy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
In the seventies both were active in the field of monumental art, wall paintings and sculptures.
They discovered that their outlook on art had many similarities and in 1978 they decided
to present themselves as an art-team in the field of environmental art. Matthijs van Dam lived in Amsterdam and Peter Jansen 60 kilometres away in The Hague,
but they teamed up when an art commission occurred.
A lot of landmarks came into existence, usually projects in Dutch city centres or governmental buildings.
They developed a computer program where triangle forms and colour was incorporated
in a three dimensional virtual world and generated tertiary color fields.
They did not consider themselves as computer artists, although they pioneered in the midst of the pre-computer era.
They used their computer program only as a tool, the computer was not a final goal. However, all of their
landmarks have this formal signature: huge three dimensional triangle columns.
Twisted, rotated, penetrating a wall or just as a majestic signal in the Dutch landscape. Covered with mysterious color fields.
One can find their landmarks in Amsterdam (4), The Hague (2) and Rotterdam (3). In the very north of The
Netherlands at Leeuwarden or in the south at Den Bosch. In towns like Deventer (2) or Den Helder.
Besides those realised projects they produced a huge number of art concepts, art proposals and draughts.
Exhibitions of their collective works took place at The Hague, Purmerend, Cebit Hannover (Germany), Maastricht (Digital works) and Rotterdam.
In 1994 they won the first prize for a design of a sculpture for a GSM entenna.
Their collaboration was very fruitful, it lasted for 20 years until 1998 when Matthijs van Dam suddenly passed away.

  

back to art   commissions