Mabon

Marcelle Hanselaar (b. 1945)
Marcelle Hanselaar was born in Rotterdam,
the Netherlands. Growing up in the formal
atmosphere of a protestant, postwar
country, proved, thanks to her drop-out/
turn-on rebellion, a profound source of
inspiration for the recurring subject matter
in Hanselaar’s work; namely the fierce
and sometimes troubled cohabitation with
those raw desires, secret fantasies and
uncultivated instincts and our functioning
in a civil society. Although Hanselaar
studied briefly at the Royal Academy of
Arts in The Hague, her lust for adventure,
guided by a quest for self-discovery, led
her to years of travel, until, in the early
1980’s she settled down in her studio in
London where she still lives. Self-taught,
she started out as an abstract painter before
turning to figuration. At the same time she
became fascinated by etching, its harsh,
bitten line seemed to perfectly suit her
subject matter. As an artist Hanselaar looks
for ways to express those illusive questions
of who and what we are when the mask is
off, and how we appear when the mask is
on. The shock effect of her work lies in
the contrast of combining her outspoken
subject matter with the conventional
medium of oil painting or etching. Both her
paintings and her prints display her delight
and fascination with theatrical illusions
and although often peppered with a biting
sense of humour, the works reveals her own
vibrant understanding of human nature, in
all its animosity and fragility.
Hanselaar has exhibited her paintings and
prints internationally, and can be found in
private and public collections worldwide
including British Museum Prints Collection,
London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Print Collection, New York; V & A Prints
& Drawings Collection, London; V & A
National Art Library, London; Whithworth
Art Gallery and Museum; Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford; Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge; Clifford Chance Art Collection,
London; The Viktor Wynd Museum of
Curiosities, London; Swarthmore College,
Pennsylvania, US; University of Arizona,
Tucson, US; Sakimi Art Museum, Okinawa,
Japan; Guandong Fine Art Museum,
Guandong, China; Iraq National Library,
Baghdad; Meermanno Museum-House of the
Book, The Hague; Soho House Amsterdam;
AMC, Amsterdam; Amsterdam Arts Council;
Kunstcollectie; Gemeente Haaksbergen, NL;
University of Aberystwyth Print Collection,
Wales; New Hall Art Collection, University
of Cambridge; Clare Hall, Cambridge; The
Ned, London; Rabo Bank, London; Merrill
Lynch, London; Risk Publications, London;
Mitsukoshi Ltd., London and Paintings in
Hospitals, London
‘Under My Skin’
oil on canvas, 110 x 130 cm
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