Major Constructivist Oil on Canvas Painting by Dutch Artist Estella den Boer

Impressive oil painting by the talented artist Estella den Boer.
The lines and forms are intriguing, just like the daring yet sophisticated use of color. Signed Estella.

Estella den Boer (1912-2010) was born in Middelburg, the Netherlands. She made expressive and abstract work, drawings, paintings and ceramics and found absolute freedom in constructive art.
A visit to Piet Mondrian’s retrospective exhibition in 1955 in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague made an overwhelming impression on her. Her conviction that geometric arrangements are the most appropriate visual language to act out of material limitations and find a way to a larger space was confirmed here.

Den Boer was influenced by the Russian Constructivists like Kandinsky. In later works we see influences from Italian Futurists, such as Gino Severini. In playfulness and use of color her painting is sometimes related to that of the artist Sophie Taüber-Arp.

Her relationship with Mondriaan was also noted by the art world. In 1994, fifty years after the death of this Pioneer in non-figurative art, there was a major retrospective in the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague. In the slipstream of this the work of Estella den Boer made a successful tour of Dutch galleries with the exhibition “Three generations of constructivists”, together with work by the artists Henk van Trigt and Hans van Rhoon.