Maïté and Thierry at Museum Henriette Polak
From 2 October to 7 November, Museum Henriette Polak is showing a fine tribute to Maïté and her husband Thierry. The sculptures and paintings come from the collection of the museum and from a gift the family made to the museum after Maïté died. A wonderful chance to see Maïté and Thierry, and their work, together again.
"This exhibition is a posthumous tribute to sculptor Maïté Duval (1944-2019) and her partner, painter Thierry Rijkhart de Voogd (1944-1999)," the museum writes. "This remarkable artist couple travelled from France to the Netherlands in 1968 to spend a year here, but they stayed for good. In Voorst and Zutphen they built their lives, with their family and their work as artists."
As early as 1978 they exhibited together at Museum Henriette Polak: the museum then showed the paintings Thierry Rijkhart de Voogd had made during his ten years in the Netherlands. It was the first duo exhibition to include sculptures by Maïté Duval. She had started sculpting four years earlier, teaching herself by travelling, looking and experimenting. Her work is figurative and grounded in that personal observation: her view of the world and of people. People, and above all women, are her subject and her source of inspiration. With her own style of robust form, movement and femininity, Maïté became widely known. Both her sculptures and her drawings offer a harmonious interplay of tenderness, intimacy, strength and movement. She tries to capture the essence and the soul of her subject. That is why her figurative sculptures are loved by collectors and can be found in public collections, such as Else at the Oude Bornhof in Zutphen, and in many museums.
Thierry Rijkhart de Voogd was a successful painter, but he struggled between high expectations and outside pressure on the one hand, and the calm he needed in order to paint on the other. The move to the Netherlands in 1968 was a new beginning: "I needed a change of air." Once here, his work changed under the influence of the Dutch landscape and the weather. By choosing unusual viewpoints and croppings, and through the play of light and shadow, he brought rhythm and space into his landscapes, still lifes and portraits. They unite beauty and poetry.
After Thierry died in 1999, Maïté made her personal tribute to him and to their love with the sculpture Malade d'amour (2002). She had developed rapidly as a sculptor and built a successful career and an impressive body of work. Maïté died twenty years after Thierry. From her estate, Museum Henriette Polak received a generous gift, which is now on show in this exhibition. Her work and his paintings come together once more in Museum Henriette Polak, as quiet but powerful witnesses of the life and artistry of this close couple: husband and wife, artist and muse, painter and sculptor.
2 October to 7 November
's Gravenhof 4, Zutphen
www.museazutphen.nl