Page 50 - The 70s - ABC of the material

Text Martien de Voigt (2022)

When, from 1974 on, we lived in the province of Groningen, close to Uithuizermeeden, Ann and I often visited
the modern gallery of farmer Waalkens in Finsterwolde. There we were bold enough to fall in love for a 7 meter
large work of art of Maria van Elk; Enlargement ↔ Reduction with black oil pastel on five canvases. The then
for us large amount of money was properly paid in instalments at farmer Waalkens. The idea was to hang this
work in Groningen at my laboratory where a long concrete wall would be suitable for this. Although we would
never have been able to hang it at our house we thought it would fit well in our collection of a.o.t. Ad Dekkers,
Peter Struycken, Sol Lewitt, Bob Bonies and Marije van Dyck. At the same time I realised almost at the same
time that at the laboratory a large wall was screaming for a beautiful large work of art that would be not to
small.
After 15 years I changed universities to the Technical University Eindhoven and this work went with us in a
large wooden box. We tried to find a museum to donate this work Enlargement ↔ Reduction of Maria van
Elk to that for more than 20 years had been kept in a wooden box at the stock room of the Cyclotron in
Eindhoven.
After a number of disappointments, a.o.t. at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, we tried the Van Abbemuseum
Eindhoven.

An invitation arrived for a discussion with the curator Christina Berndes.
I showed her Maria's book Maria van Elk: drawing 1873 – 1980 with fascinating explanations of her work
as Maria had given me in a telephonic lecture. Also, I showed the working drawings of the work and gave as
motivation for the choice of the Van Abbemuseum that this work seamlessly connected with their collection
of geometric abstract art that was acquired during he sixties by the then director Jean Leering. The work
of Maria van Elk would be a valuable addition to this collection. Also, I thought this museum was suitable
because of the good storage and care and the possibility for exhibiting it to a wide audience. A clear positive
signal arrived from Christina. After consultation with Maria we successfully donated the work of Maria van Elk
Enlargement ↔ Reduction to the Van Abbe Museum including the working drawings (> page 44).

A few weeks later the work was picked up at the university in the presence of Maria and her partner Sieb
Bohlken.
After inspection Maria was not dissatisfied with the condition of the work, although the surface of the
canvases needed a new layer of black oil pastel. After the donation in 2012 we went to look at the canvases
at the museum. Weeks later we, Maria and her partner and myself, went to the museum to look at the work
that was mounted on plywood sheets and put next to each other against a wall in a large white hall in the
museum. We were impressed by the strong appearance of the work. Maria had brought a bag with black

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