"de Kus" (The Kiss) Abstract Monotype in Ink on Paper
Bright and bold abstract monotype by Dutch-American artist Anouk Johanna (b. 1946). Two abstracted human-like dark grey shapes are mirror images of each other, surrounded in a multicolored background. The background has a textured look, with blended variations in shades of yellow, green, teal, and magenta.
Signed and dated "Anouk Johanna '93" in the lower right corner.
Numbered "1/1" in the lower left corner.
Titled "de Kus" in the lower middle.
Presented in a wood frame and an off-white mat.
Frame size: 17.5"H x 15.75"W
Image size: 9.25"H x 7.75"W
Anouk Johanna (Dutch, b. 1946) grew up in Amsterdam Holland and already knew as a young child she was going to be an artist. In Amsterdam she was exposed to world class art and early on she showed signs of a multitude of talents in visual as well as performing arts. Her parents fully supported and encouraged her.
She studied drama as well as costume and textile design and was part of a traveling theater group before she started studying sculpture at the prestigious Rietveld Akademie.
In 1969 she was offered an opportunity to travel to the USA to study sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum Art School in Brooklyn, New York. There she met and married an American sculptor. They traveled and lived all over the US and in Holland and had two daughters. In Amsterdam they bought an old sailboat where they lived a romantic life as true bohemian artists and made art even when the children were very small.
In 1971 they moved back to New York City and Johanna created large fiber art wall hangings for several years.
In 1975 her husband and she, now living in L.A., learned to be silversmiths and started selling their jewelry at Arts and Crafts Fairs. This was a more lucrative way to raise a family than as sculptors. It was at the Californian Art Fairs that they were first introduced to the art of "scrimshaw" (engraving and inking of images on ivory or bone) and began to create their own scrimshaw pieces happy to be able to combine sculpture and drawing skills.
In 1980, after a divorce, Johanna settled with her daughters in Santa Cruz, CA where she started taking classes at Cabrillo College and studied painting, drawing, jewelry, printmaking and art history while continuing to sell her scrimshaw jewelry...
Category
1990s Abstract Photogravure Abstract Paintings