Histoire d'Amour

Bert started his artistic career later than most. He was 36 years old when he applied at the Rietveldacademie in Amsterdam. At first the teachers didn’t want to admit Bert to the program. But there was one person on the committee who could not stop thinking about Bert and his work. The artist Erik Mattijssen. The LAM also has a work by Erik in the collection. Maybe you saw it on your way up in the elevator. It has lots of color and it is pretty big.

When he was at art academy Bert’s teachers were not happy with the work he was making. They said that he was making things that looked like art but weren’t. At some point Bert thought, I’m going to my parents and I’ll just take pictures of myself. That won’t look like art, maybe then my teachers will like it. And turns out, they did. Bert continued taking photos with his parents and ended up graduating art academy with them.

In the series of photos with his parents Bert does things he used to do as a child. But now that he is a grown man, that makes it look a little bit weird.