Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman

After working as a journalist, Werkman established his own printing business in Groningen in 1908, which soon also became a place for his first artistic experiments. He joined the artists’ association De Ploeg in 1919 and, in the early 1920s, began experimenting with printing and typography, developing his distinctive druksels. From 1923 to 1926 he also published the experimental magazine The Next Call, through which he explored the relationship between words, images and visual form. His experiments brought his work into contact with the international avant-garde, and in 1930 he participated in the Cercle et Carré exhibition in Paris. He also developed sound poetry, combining experimental language with his typographic and visual research. During the Second World War, as commercial printing declined, Werkman devoted increasing attention to his artistic practice and collaborated closely with the clandestine publishing house De Blauwe Schuit, producing typography and illustrations for its publications. Arrested by the Sicherheitsdienst in March 1945, he was executed in Bakkeveen on 10 April, five days before the liberation of Groningen.

Michel Seuphor