Joop Sanders

{{Short description|American painter (1921–2023)}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Joop Sanders  | honorific_suffix = | image =Joop Sanders in his studio, circa 1980.jpg | image_size = | alt = man in overalls standing by artwork | caption = Joop Sanders in his studio, circa 1980 | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = Joan Alfred Levy<ref>{{cite book |title=Four Centuries of Dutch-American Relations: 1609–2009 |date=9 September 2009 |publisher=SUNY Press |pages=1074 |isbn=978-1-4384-3013-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BsFFWlQ8RwEC&dq=Joop+Sanders+1921&pg=PA1074 |access-date=24 November 2022}}</ref> | birth_date = {{Birth date|1921|10|06}} | birth_place = [[Amsterdam]], Netherlands | death_date = {{Death date and age|2023|07|06|1921|10|06}} | death_place = [[Putnam County, New York]], U.S. | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | education = [[Art Students League of New York]] | alma_mater = | known_for = | notable_works = | style = [[Painting]] | movement = [[Abstract Expressionism]],<br /> [[New York School (art)|The New York School]] | works = | spouse = | awards =  | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website = | module = }}

'''Joop Sanders''' (October 6, 1921 – July 6, 2023) was a Dutch-American painter, educator, and founding member of the American [[Abstraction|Abstract]] Expressionist group. He was the youngest member of the first generation of the [[New York School (art)|New York School]].

Sanders' work is held in the collections of the [[Museum of Modern Art]],<ref name="moma" /> [[Madison Museum of Contemporary Art]],<ref name="mmoca">{{cite web|access-date=2022-12-06|title=Joop Sanders|url=https://www.mmoca.org/artist/joop-sanders|website=Madison Museum of Contemporary Art}}</ref> and [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]].<ref name="philamuseum">{{cite web|access-date=2022-12-06|title=Search: Joop%20Sanders|url=https://philamuseum.org/search|website=philamuseum.org}}</ref>

== Early life and education == Sanders was born on October 6, 1921, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and emigrated to the United States in 1939.<ref name="moma">{{cite web|access-date=2022-11-16|title=Joop Sanders – MoMA|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/5148|website=The Museum of Modern Art}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://www.askart.com/artist_bio/Joop_Sanders/115446/Joop_Sanders.aspx|title=Artist Biography for Joop Sanders|website=www.askart.com|access-date=2019-02-25}}</ref> He studied in 1940 at the [[Art Students League of New York]], in New York City, for six months with artist [[George Grosz]].<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5cNPAAAAYAAJ|title=Joop Sanders|publisher=Horizon Publisher|year=1984|volume=24}}</ref>

In 1940 Sanders met [[Elaine de Kooning]] and [[Willem de Kooning]] at a concert featuring the music of [[Virgil Thomson]], [[Aaron Copland]] and [[William Schuman]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4D2FDwAAQBAJ|title=De Kooning: An American Master|last1=Stevens|first1=Mark|last2=Swan|first2=Annalyn|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|year=2006|isbn=0-375-71116-3|pages=193|via=Google Books}}</ref> By the mid-1940s, Elaine de Kooning had painted approximately a dozen portraits of Sanders, which seem to express loneliness and androgyny.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hyperallergic.com/194805/instant-illuminations-elaine-de-koonings-early-portraiture/|title=Instant Illuminations: Elaine de Kooning's Early Portraiture|date=2015-04-04|website=Hyperallergic|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-25}}</ref> Sanders spoke at Elaine de Kooning's memorial service.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/13/obituaries/celebrating-a-life-steeped-in-art-friends-honor-elaine-de-kooning.html|title=Celebrating a Life Steeped in Art, Friends Honor Elaine de Kooning|first=Andrew L.|last=Yarrow|work=The New York Times |date=March 13, 1990|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref>

== Work == Sanders was one of twenty original members and a charter member of [[The Club (fine arts)|The Club]], which was located at 39 East 8th Street.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title = Prolific Years: Exhibitions and Alcoholism|url = http://dekooningexperts.com/de_kooning_biography_4.html|website = de Kooning Experts|access-date = 2015-12-28|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303205659/http://dekooningexperts.com/de_kooning_biography_4.html|archive-date = 2016-03-03|url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.artforum.com/print/196507/how-the-artists-of-the-new-school-found-their-first-audience-themselves-36926|title=How the artists of the New School found their first audience—themselves.|website=www.artforum.com|date=September 1965 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.artforum.com/print/196507/how-the-artists-of-the-new-school-found-their-first-audience-themselves-36926 | title=How the artists of the New School found their first audience—themselves | date=September 1965 }}</ref> Sanders married Isca Jörgensen at The Club on December 27, 1950. Until his death, he was the only surviving artist to have exhibited at the historic 9th Street Show of 1951.

In the mid-1950's Sanders left New York for Europe. This move—just at the time abstract expressionism was being accepted in America—resulted, however, in his being overlooked as one of the first younger artists to contribute to the style in New York. Sanders established a considerable European reputation and exhibited extensively in Europe. In addition, his inclusion in exhibitions with the Zero Group, curated by [[Enrico Castellani]] and [[Piero Manzoni]] connected his work with many of the leading Italian artists of the period, including Manzoni.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20250413061008/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Zero_Group.pdf Zero Group]{{full citation needed|date=May 2025}}</ref>

Sanders returned to New York in 1959, where his work became almost monochromatic and fieldlike. It never was impersonal; he always retained an emotional content.

In 1960 he was the first young American painter to be given a one-man show at the [[Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam|Stedelijk Museum]] in Amsterdam, which played a crucial role in introducing advanced American art to Europe.

During the late 1960s, Sanders created sectional paintings which would be arranged in a variety of configurations by the owner or even construed as three-dimensional sculpture.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_in_the_Fifties._Photographs_by_Timothy_Greenfield-Sanders,_Text_by_Hiram_Butler.pdf|title=English: Photographs by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and text by Hiram Butler on the work of Willem de Kooning, Joop Sanders, Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Milton Resnick, Joan Mitchell, Michael Goldberg, Esteban Vicente, James Brooks and Ibram Lassaw.|first=Timothy|last=Greenfield-Sanders|date=June 1, 1981|via=Wikimedia Commons}}</ref>

Horizon Magazine's art critic, Hiram Butler, described Sanders' painting "Pantagruel, 1955" as roughly painted and reflects abstract-expressionist ''Angst'' at its fullest. Yet, like its namesake from Rabelais' work, it is also good-humored. American commercial colors elevate the pitch and serve to delight. Along with the serious express there is a capricious and fanciful, almost mocking stroke.<ref name="auto" /> Sanders' "Gong, 1979", places the power of abstract-expressionist color and painterliness within a more formal and refined structure. Shapes are larger than in his earlier work. the dominant purples, deep greens, and pinks are rich and more closely hued. The combination results in a powerful, serene rhythm. When asked about reincorporating earlier tendencies in his art, Sanders responds, "the artist is like Sisyphus, punished by Zeus to try forever to roll a rock uphill which forever rolls back upon him."<ref name="auto" />

Art critic [[Laurence Campbell|Lawrence Campbell]] in describing Sanders' work for ''Art in America'' in 1987 at Alfred Kren Gallery in New York remarked: "These paintings are like spirit photographs in which the spirit reaches out and touches the viewer. [[Barnett Newman]] once said to Sanders on seeing paintings like these, “Of all the painters working in the context of color field, you seem to me to be the only one who, like, me, concerns himself with the humanist spirit in painting.

''The New York Times'' critic Joseph Masheck in reviewing the Kren show stated:<blockquote>"It is nice to see somebody stick to his guns and have the world catch up. Joop (pronounced ''Yope'') Sanders came to New York from Amsterdam in 1939 as a teen-ager; 10 years later, he was the youngest founding member of ''The Club,'' of those most radical painters of the day, the Abstract Expressionists. We would probably know him better by now if he hadn't been back in Europe during the later 50's.

In sampling two separate decades, the 60's and the 80's, this exhibition provokes a bracing double take. First comes a glowing roomful of paintings, each practically a monochrome but divided into rounded zones, from 1962 and 1963. Here a spiritual purity akin to Ad Reinhardt's, though more lyrical, makes itself felt. Then, in another room, are works of the present, some on paper startlingly like paintings by that compatriot of Sanders', Willem de Kooning. In a different vein, two small canvases, ''Pogrom'' (1984) and ''Interrogation Room'' (1986), would be morally serious even without the titles. Toughly sensitive and in more than one sense reviving are some small recent drawings and watercolors: in these the Orientalizing ''calligraphies'' of artists and poets and others who refused to ''buy into'' the American 50's are renewed with winning finesse and timely conviction by an individualist still unspoiled.<ref>{{cite news|first1=Joseph|last1=Masheck|access-date=2022-12-06|title=ART: POLKE ON DISPLAY|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/11/14/arts/art-polke-on-display.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=14 November 1986|issn=0362-4331}}</ref></blockquote>

== Personal life == Sanders was married for 68 years to the [[lied]]er singer Isca Sanders-Jörgensen (1925–2019). His son is the sculptor, John Sanders<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://socratessculpturepark.org/artist/john-sanders/|title=John Sanders|website=Socrates Sculpture Park}}</ref> and his daughter is the attorney, Karin Greenfield-Sanders.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lawyers.justia.com/lawyer/karin-f-e-greenfield-sanders-1125644|title=Karin F E Greenfield-Sanders|website=lawyers.justia.com}}</ref> His son-in-law is the photographer [[Timothy Greenfield-Sanders]] and his grandchildren include artist [[Isca Greenfield-Sanders]] and filmmaker Liliana Greenfield-Sanders.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.veronicabeard.com/Inspired/APRIL-MOVER-And-SHAKER-ISCA-GREENFIELD-SANDERS.html|title=Mover & Shaker: Isca Greenfield-Sanders|date=2015-04-27|website=Veronica Beard|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106053012/https://www.veronicabeard.com/Inspired/APRIL-MOVER-And-SHAKER-ISCA-GREENFIELD-SANDERS.html|archive-date=2016-01-06|url-status=dead|access-date=2015-12-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://art.famsf.org/isca-greenfield-sanders|title=Isca Greenfield-Sanders|date=2018-09-21|website=FAMSF Search the Collections|language=en|access-date=2019-02-25|archive-date=2019-02-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190225162142/https://art.famsf.org/isca-greenfield-sanders|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Sanders died at his home in [[Putnam County, New York]], on July 6, 2023, at the age of 101.<ref name="artforum">{{cite web|access-date=2023-07-27|title=Joop Sanders (1921–2023)|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/joop-sanders-1921-2023-90846|website=Artforum|date=26 July 2023 }}</ref><ref>[https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/07/27/joop-sanders-abstract-expressionist-obituary The Art Newspaper]</ref><ref>[https://www.elconfidencial.com/el-grito/2023-08-02/obituario-joop-sanders_3711502/ Joop Sanders Obit El Grito]</ref>

== Exhibitions == * [[9th Street Art Exhibition]], 60 East 9th Street, 1951<ref name=":0" /><ref name="9th St. Show Poster">[http://albertkotin.com/9th.%20st.jpg ''"9th St." Show Poster''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205205529/http://albertkotin.com/9th.%20st.jpg |date=2012-02-05 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/50666793&tab=holdings ''New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists,''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929103229/http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/50666793%26tab%3Dholdings |date=2007-09-29 }} p. 16; p. 38; p. 326-329</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://specificobject.com/objects/info.cfm?object_id=20630#.Y2wG3-zML1K|title=9th St. : Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture|website=Specific Object}}</ref> * "Joop Sanders" 1959 Stedelijk Museum<ref>[https://library.nga.gov/discovery/fulldisplay?vid=01NGA_INST:NGA&tab=MainLibrary&docid=alma99690133504896&lang=en&context=L&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&query=sub,exact,Dadaism%20--%20Exhibitions,AND&mode=advanced Stedelijk Museum Exhibition]</ref> * "Joop Sanders" 1965 Bertha Schaefer Gallery<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JS_1965-Bertha_Schaefer-Gallery-exhibition-3.jpg|title=English: Joop Sanders 1965 exhibition at Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York.|first=Joop|last=Sanders|date=May 1, 1965|via=Wikimedia Commons}}</ref> * ''Abstractions'', Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, 1988/89<ref name=":2" /> * ''Dubuffet to de Kooning: Expressionist Prints from Europe and America'', Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, 1998/99<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/5148|title=Artists: Joop Sanders|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en|access-date=2019-02-25}}</ref> * ''Sanders and Greenfield-Sanders'', Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL, 2003<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.snitzer.com/|title=FREDRIC SNITZER GALLERY – Miami Art Gallery|website=FREDRIC SNITZER GALLERY}}</ref> * ''Elaine de Kooning Portrayed'', [[Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center]], East Hampton, New York, 2015<ref>{{Cite web|title = News {{!}} The Hedda Sterne Foundation|url = http://heddasternefoundation.org/news/|website = The Hedda Sterne Foundation|access-date = 2015-12-28|language = en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title = Springs News – Springs Community Notes|url = http://www.27east.com/news/article.cfm/Springs/116846/Springs-Community-Notes-August-6|website = 27east|access-date = 2015-12-28|date = 2015-08-06}}</ref> * ''Elaine de Kooning: Portraits'', [[National Portrait Gallery (United States)|National Portrait Gallery]], Washington, D.C., 2015/16<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://npg.si.edu/exhibition/elaine-de-kooning-portraits|title=Elaine de Kooning: Portraits | National Portrait Gallery|website=npg.si.edu|date=12 February 2016 }}</ref> * Galerie Biedermann, 2021/22<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://muenchner-galerien.de/ausstellung/50-jahre-50-positionen/|title=Initiative Münchner Galerien zeitgenössischer Kunst – 50 Jahre – 50 Positionen|website=Initiative Münchner Galerien zeitgenössischer Kunst}}</ref>

== Collections == Sanders' work is held in the following permanent collections: *[[Museum of Modern Art]], New York: 1 work (as of 16 November 2022)<ref name="moma" /> *[[Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam|Stedelijk Museum]], Amsterdam, Netherlands<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/collectie/maker/4177-joop-sanders | title=Joop Sanders }}</ref> *[[Madison Museum of Contemporary Art]], Madison, Wisconsin<ref name="mmoca" /> *[[Philadelphia Museum of Art]], Philadelphia, PA<ref name="philamuseum" />

== See also == *[[Abstract expressionism]] *[[Abstract impressionism]] *[[Action painting]] *[[New York School (art)|New York School]] *[[10th Street galleries]]

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == *{{Official website|www.joopsanders.com}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Joop}} [[Category:1921 births]] [[Category:2023 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Dutch male artists]] [[Category:Dutch emigrants to the United States]] [[Category:20th-century American male artists]] [[Category:Abstract expressionist artists]] [[Category:American abstract painters]] [[Category:20th-century American painters]] [[Category:20th-century American printmakers]] [[Category:21st-century American painters]] [[Category:American male painters]] [[Category:Art Students League of New York alumni]] [[Category:Artists from Amsterdam]] [[Category:Dutch male painters]] [[Category:Painters from New York City]] [[Category:Painters from Amsterdam]] [[Category:Artists from Manhattan]] [[Category:People from Greenwich Village]] [[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]] [[Category:Dutch men centenarians]] [[Category:American men centenarians]]