Hans Innemée

The Dutch artist Hans Innemée was born in 1951 in Tilburg, where he also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts. Hans Innemée is a painter with a unique style, depicting people, animals, and objects in a way that resembles children's drawings—or so it seems. His work has a humorous undertone and evokes a sense of endearment. “I’m actually a draftsman, not a painter,” Hans Innemée says about himself. He became especially well known for the recurring figure of the chicken in his work. “About ten years ago, I made the chicken the central figure in my art. I wanted to use the most common yet ordinary domestic animal in the Netherlands to communicate.” “The chicken has taken on enormous visual expressiveness. Nothing human is foreign to me, but I prefer to use animals to express myself. My work is always about human interactions—about contact and presence. My animals ‘are.’ Through them, I can communicate.” In recent years, other animals have also increasingly appeared in Innemée’s work. “The worm has become very important in recent years. I found it a challenge to express something meaningful using such a small, humble creature from the lower animal kingdom.” “My heart was in music for years, but being part of a band makes you very dependent on other members—or on other egos, if you want to put it that way. As a visual artist, I’m in control of my own menagerie. I create a setting in which a certain scene takes place, and I direct that scene.” The technique Hans Innemée uses is one he developed himself. He creates monotype drawings on tissue paper, which are then adhered to handmade Thai paper. These are subsequently mounted on wooden panels and colored with oil pastels. Hans Innemée is highly critical of his own artworks, handling the entire process himself. “Quality over quantity” is a motto that is clearly reflected in Hans Innemée’s art.