Anton Heyboer 1924-2005

Anton Heyboer 1924-2005. Charcoal on paper 48x64cm. From the series "Primal landscapes" 1949

Anton Heyboer on a 1974 cassette tape: "In the Zonnesteeg in Haarlem I took off my clothes, laid out the ruin where I lived, the broken open houses that were declared uninhabitable, I filled the floors with chamois paper and took Siberian charcoal, took off my clothes, in the evening, no one was there, and with my breath held in one go filled sheets, sheets full, all with smudges, and when they were swept I touched them briefly with an eraser, leaving spots that connected the white and the black and it had the character of primeval landscapes.

Later I started to compress it even more. Compress even more. And the last shapes it had was the shapes of an egg. Or at least the shapes of something round, rising, and that was in the primal. And then I went insane. Then I got soul sick. And I have always understood, when I saw art by great artists, I always saw that their passion and their character were linked. And my job was passion, and it really had no character. Character, I still had to acquire in the insane asylum in Santpoort. "(www.anton-heyboer.nl)