english

Hugo Kaagman was born in Haarlem, Holland in 1955.

From 1973 to 1976 he studied social geography at the University of Amsterdam. Towards the end of the seventies he got involved in the punk movement; at that time the premises at 62 Sarphatistraat, where he lived and worked up until 1998, were broken into by squatters. This was the place where in 1977 the Koecrandt, the first punk newspaper of the Netherlands, was published. In collaboration with others Hugo Kaagman also set up a number of galleries, including Anus gallery in 1977.
Hugo Kaagman makes stencils of his pictures, mostly traditional motifs from different cultures, which he then combines to form larger representations. After initially having sought his inspiration elsewhere, he discovered Holland and developed his own contemporary version of Delft blue tiles. This Delft blue publication is a survey of Kaagman’s blue and white period, also known as Kaagware, and forms just one item from his massive oeuvre. In 1983 Hugo Kaagman received his first official commission from the municipality of Amsterdam: spraying a fence in Waterlooplein. In 1987 he painted the entrance to the Tropenmuseum. In 1992 he made his first Delft blue mural: the Eerste Leliedwarsstraat. After this in 1993 came the most extensive painting until then: a 65-metre-long mural in the West Terminal of Schiphol Airport. Since then Hugo Kaagman has created a great many murals at home and abroad.

He has developed his own graffiti style since 1969. In his early period, he used various elements from the punk and reggae cultures in his work. Until 1985 he was mainly active as a graffiti artist in Amsterdam’s city centre. His murals and paintings are realised by means of stencils and airbrush. Typical of his work is the symmetry of the composition and the repetition and mirroring of the image. Kaagman’s work reflects a particular concern with Western and non-Western cultures. During his travels in Morocco and Senegal, among other countries, he discovered motifs, traditional patterns and handicraft forms that are specific to the cultures of these nations. Exploring other cultures made Kaagman aware of his own culture and he started to research motifs that are typically Dutch. He feels strongly that these should be preserved and combines them with contemporary and foreign motifs. Kaagman’s work is also a vehicle for his ironic comment on political or contemporary events. The most distinctive characteristic of Kaagman’s work of the past decade is its blue color. He plans to extend and deepen his study of the clichés of different cultures to come to a survey of his findings and publish and expose this to the decisionmakers of the European community.

Head Supplies

Spray-can art is characterized by a simple accesible image language. Hugo Kaagman is a spraycan artist: in the early eighties the hoardings and walls of Amsterdam were not safe from his stencilled emblems. On the wall of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum Kaagman sprayed Vermeer’s milkmaid, so the masterpiece could also be enjoyed, in this popularized version, outside the museum. Since his recent cross over from the street to the neutral gallery space, where he has traded the spray can for the airbrush technique, Kaagman’s interest in ‘the spiritual in art’ has become more pronounced. His canvasses with symmetrical abstractions are head supplies: they provide an effect comparable to that of the mandala which is, in Eastern religions. an aid to meditation. The abstract patterns are inspired by the ornamental art forms which he encounters on visits to the East –as M.C. Escher was influenced by the abstract geomatrical forms of the Moorish mosaics in the Alhambra. Many of Kaagman’s figurative stencil paintings have a symmetrical design and bear witness to his "search" into the world religions ("Coptic crosses"1988). From the four corners of Pisa (1988) identical towers of Pisa point to a cenrtal place where a white cross shines. Text: Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen, conservator Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 1990