Joop Beljon

Johannes Jacobus (Joop) Beljon (11 January 1922 - 12 December 2002) was a Dutch artist, academy lecturer, director of academy and writer. As artist he was active as sculptor, fiber artist, lithographer, jeweler, environmental artists, and jewelry designer.^[1] Under the name J.J. Beljon and the pseudonym Bernard Majorick, Beljon was also writer. Beljon had taken over that pseudonym from the writer Godfried Bomans.

Biography

Beljon was born in Schoten (Haarlem) in 1922. His father was a blacksmith, who had worked at Walden commune of Frederik van Eeden in Bussum. Beljon received his secondary education at the Triniteitslyceum at the Zijlweg in Haarlem.^[2] In Haarlem, he was a pupil of the sculptor Theo van Reijn, and of the painter, draftsman Floris de Groot.^[1]

Beljon settled as independent artist in Haarlem, and later moved to Haarlemmermeer in the 1940s. In 1948, he was listed as one of the foremost Dutch contemporary sculptures in a publication by Theo van Reijn.^[3] In 1960, he moved to The Hague, where from 1961 to 1985 he served as director of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. At the art academy, he also lectured environmental design from 1978 to 1980, and design from 1978 to 1980. In 1969, he had moved his art studio to Capelle aan den IJssel, and in 1993 to Oud-Beijerland. He made study trips to Italy and Switzerland.^[1]

In 1998, he received the lifetime achievement award for Dutch sculpture, the Wilhelmina-ring, for which he was commissioned a sculpture in the Sprengenstein Park in Apeldoorn (see image). Beljon was married to Gabriëlle Dernison, and died in Oud-Beijerland on 12 December 2002.^[1]

Work

Beljon was an environment artist and he worked extensively with architects on projects commissioned by the Government Buildings Agency, among others in The Hague, Arnhem, Apeldoorn, Nijmegen, Groningen and Utrecht.

He carried out work in various countries, such as:

United States: Homage to Sam Rodia (1965), campus California State University - Long Beach (painted white concrete, 19-piece and 4 to 5 meters high).
Mexico: Tertulia de los Gigantes (1968) in Mexico City (7 brightly colored concrete towers); sculpture Al Alimon (2001) on the island of Isla Mujeres and sculpture Caballo Negro (posthumous, 2003) in Chetumal, capital of Quintana Roo on the peninsula of Yucatán.
Bahrain: three gardens, fountains and pool annex (1981) in Bahrain.
Israel: plastic Dukdalf (1984), Shaltielgebouw in Jerusalem (project with other artists such as Sheila Hicks and Alexander Calder).