Herman Makkink

Makkink was born in Winschoten. After studying chemistry from 1955 to 1959 in Groningen, Makkink began to walk and hitchhike around the world, a phase in his life he described in the book Around the world on foot and which he sold to various newspapers, mainly in Southeast Asia. He worked in Japan as an English teacher and also travelled through Australia and Central America. He began to sculpt in the United States, when he made his first assemblage of scrap metal. After a short stay in Greece, he moved to London and became technical assistant at the London College of Printing. In London, he participated in several group exhibitions.

Partner, the writer Julia Blackburn, photographed by Herman Makkink in 2013

His first solo exhibition, "Gnomes", was mounted at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 1971. Makkink worked with his brother Kees Makkink, at the St Katharine Docks complex in London, a former industrial complex that was converted by the SPACE Foundation as a studio complex. There, in 1969 he was discovered by Stanley Kubrick who used two of his works in his film A Clockwork Orange (1971): Rocking Machine and Christ Unlimited.[1] Coincidentally, the Italian filmmaker Tinto Brass also used Rocking Machine in his film Dropout, starring Vanessa Redgrave.[2]

Makkink's partner was the British author, Julia Blackburn. In 1972 Makkink settled in Amsterdam, while making regular visits to Deià, Majorca. His first solo exhibition in the Wetering Gallery in Amsterdam took place in 1982, and the gallery has continued to feature his work ever since. In 1986 he was visiting professor at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts.[3]

From 1987 to 2000 he taught part-time at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Makkink worked alternately in Bramfield (Suffolk), Molini di Triora-Agaggio, where he met and attended with great friendship the Italian-Chilean surrealist painter, Mauricio Stella, who lived in Molini di Triora. Then Amsterdam. In Amsterdam Makkink shared, for many years until his death, a studio with his former pupil Adriaan Rees. Makkink was controversial in Amsterdam. One of his sculptures – a tubular shape executed in brick at the Spinozahof – was demolished in 1994 because, according to local residents, it obstructed their view.

He died in Amsterdam on October 20, 2013.[4]

The following are commissioned public works in the Netherlands:

He was married three times. He was survived by his daughter Fiona, two step-children, and his third wife and companion of several years, Julia Blackburn.[4]

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  Vier holle vormen (1986)
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  Obelisk (1987)
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  Bol-vorm (1987)
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  Module (1988)
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  Planeet (1991)
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  Vlindermolen (1993) in Amsterdam Sloten
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  Bolbewoners (2003)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Herman Makkink.

• Official website