Composition with ladder

Cees Kortlang was a Dutch painter who studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. His major was drawing, but he never passed his exam.

Through Theo Swagemakers, Kortlang was able to move into an atelier house in Amsterdam. Other residents were Jan Wolkers, Piet Esser, Jaap Hillenius, Mies Hillenius and Theo Swagemakers and Jaap Wagemaker.

Kortlang made paintings, etchings and gouaches. Later he also wrote several books. Initially he worked figuratively, but in 1958 he switched to making abstract work.

For a long time Kortlang lived and worked in the studio apartments in the Zomerdijkstraat in Amsterdam, surrounded by other artists. But he was also frequently abroad. He and Jaap Wagemaker and Theo Swagemakers spent time in Prague in the early 1960s at the invitation of the government of Czechoslovakia. Also, he worked in Germany and Paris during this period.

Kortlang exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam during the exhibition Liga Nieuw Beelden (1961) and the Lucas exhibitions of 1959.

Although Kortlang was now making abstract work, he participated in the exhibition with figurative work. The collection of the Stedelijk Museum currently contains twenty of his works.

The exhibitions kept coming and Kortlang exhibited at home and abroad. In 1963 he won the Talens Prize. In 1992, after the death of his mother and the divorce of his wife, Kortlang went back to live in the parental home in Ermelo. In the meantime, his daughter had grown up.

During 1997 vacation in Venezuala, Karin Kortlang went missing with her boyfriend. This event marked a low point in Cees Kortlang’s life. He incorporated the event in his 1997 etchings. For example, he made etchings with the titles “Karin I Love You,” “Their Fall,” “Karin’s Last Resting Place,” and “Where They Are Now”.

Later, he also wrote about his daughter in the book Balans, an autobiographical account of his life’s journey. The Karin Kortlang Foundation is named after his daughter. On April 5, 2008, Cees Kortlang died in Harderwijk.