Jan Sluijters: The Wild Years

Alongside Hieronymus Bosch and Vincent van Gogh, the Den Bosch born-and-bread Jan Sluijters (1881-1957) is one of the three Brabant-born artists the Noordbrabants Museum regularly celebrates. The major autumn exhibition Jan Sluijters. The wild years shows how, early on in his career, on two separate occasions, the young artist spends a number of months in Paris, where he comes into contact with the avant-garde art of the epoch: the work of the ‘fauves’ (the wild beasts), cubism and luminism.

For approximately 15 years, he experiments intensively with almost all of the new art movements he came across in Paris, which would prove of crucial importance to his artistry. The exhibition displays work by Jan Sluijters alongside that of the avant-gardeists who inspired him in Paris, such as Kees van Dongen, Henri Matisse and Georges Braque, plus that of Dutch modernists such as Piet Mondriaan and Leo Gestel, whose work he in turn influenced.

In addition to paintings, drawings, signed postcards and photos will also be on show, together with critical reviews from the time that weren't always complimentary of his work. The exhibition offers a picture of Jan Sluijters' wild years; years during which he grew to become one of the founders of new Dutch painting, and which proved formative for his entire career as a painter.