Provenance: Galerie Ramakers, The Hague • Private collection
Prototype: In 1974, Bonies made a canvas measuring 140 × 140 cm based on this prototype. It was included in the exhibition Bob Bonies (1981) at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. It was also published in R. Fuchs, J. Bolten-Rempt, Bonies, The Hague 2021, p. 180.
Was for sale / Sold
Bob Bonies (1937) is regarded as an important representative of geometric abstraction in the Netherlands and an heir to the De Stijl movement. His work is rooted in a continuous search for limitation and reduction, without sacrificing visual tension.
In his paintings, he uses color to give direction and structure to space—vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. Bonies works primarily with squares and rectangles in exclusively primary colors, supplemented by green and white. In doing so, he creates an interaction between the flat surface of the painting and the physical space in which it exists.
Bonies trained as a sculptor at the Free Academy and the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, and studied interior design and design at the Konstfackskolan in Stockholm. In 1966, he had his first solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and participated in the international exhibition Forms of Colors, alongside artists such as Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, and Frank Stella.
Bonies was a co-founder of the Bond voor Beeldende Kunst Arbeiders (BBKA) and served as director of the Free Academy in The Hague from 1988 to 2001. His work is represented in numerous museum and private collections, including the Stedelijk Museum and the Kunstmuseum Den Haag.
