Art in the Ambassade Hotel

Theo Wolvecamp

Theo Wolvecamp (1925-1992) was born in Hengelo. He studied at the Arnhem Art Academy from 1945 to 1947 where, against his wishes, he resigned himself to the rigid regime that prevailed there. In 1947 he moved to Amsterdam where he threw overboard everything he had been taught at the Academy and lived more or less as a clochard. He found a studio where he was only able to work in the evening hours and during the night. It was here that he produced his first experimental works, which quickly drew the attention of painters Corneille, Appel and Constant, who also lived in Amsterdam.

They invited him to contribute to the art exhibition "Painters under thirty" in Arti and Amicitiae in 1948. This was the birth of the Experimental Group which was soon to merge with the Cobra movement.

Silent force

Theo Wolvecamp lived for some time in Paris early in the fifties, but after his international activities with the Cobra group he returned definitively to his place of birth, Twente. The Cobra movement was thus the first and last time that Wolvecamp became involved in group activities. He was not all that keen on publicity and led a somewhat sequestered life; consequently becoming less well known than the other Cobra movement members.

Theo Wolvecamp is sometimes referred to as the 'silent force behind Cobra' because of the consistency of his work and his loyalty to the Cobra principles: the artistic principles of experimentation and improvisation.