Aat Veldhoen 1964
SKU: HL028Aat Veldhoen 1964 "Rotaprent". Rotagravure "Lotje"
Aat Veldhoen grew up in Amsterdam and learned the art of being an artist from his father Arie Veldhoen (1907 - 1955). He was first an advertising painter but later trained as a painter at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Veldhoen started his career as a draftsman, but soon gained a reputation as a free artist. He liked to make detailed drawings and paintings of dune landscapes, self-portraits, naked women and making love. As an intern at the Binnengasthuis he drew patients and operations. He bought his first etching press from the Royal Grant for Painting, which he received three times in a row around 1956. Later he started drawing directly on offset plates, to have the "rotaprints" printed in a large number of copies. With this he wanted to fulfill his ideal of making art accessible to everyone, it had to be 'folk graphics'. Veldhoen drove through Amsterdam on a cargo bike full of prints between circa 1964 and 1967, where he sold graphic work for three guilders each. The cargo bike was inaugurated by Simon Carmiggelt. In a sense, Veldhoen spoiled its own market due to high volumes. His etchings, lithographs and paintings were difficult to sell in the years that followed. On the occasion of Veldhoen's seventieth birthday in 2004, Museum Het Rembrandthuis exhibited a collection of his work as a free artist and draftsman, which was also exhibited in 2006 in Animaux Galerie (now Galerie Christian Ouwens) in Rotterdam. For this occasion, a silkscreen was made of the work In love, a self-portrait of Veldhoen with his old love Cristi Kluivers, which he gave to his partner Hedy d'Ancona.