Willy Boersartist • painter • watercolourist • draughtsmanAmsterdam 1905-1978

The Amsterdam painter Willy Boers was one of the key figures involved in the post Second World War renewal of visual art in the Netherlands. To this end, he became one of the co-founders of the Vrij Beelden (New Images) group in 1946, that also included Hussem, Roëde and Ouburg, and who exhibited regularly at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Vrij Beelden painters chose to work in an abstract and experimental style, freely building on existing movements like Cubism, Surrealism and Expressionism. This was in contrast to Cobra artists, who broke away entirely from the prevailing idiom. Boers’ work became completely abstract after 1945, with evident influences from Kandinsky. In 1950, along with artists like Rooskens and Brands, he co-founded the Creation group, in which abstraction and the experimental again played a role. As well as being a naturally talented painter, he was a gifted author, writing many enlightening articles on abstract art.