Willem de Kooning (April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

In the post-World War II era, de Kooning painted in a style that came to be referred to as Abstract expressionism or Action painting, and was part of a group of artists that came to be known as the New York School. Other painters in this group included Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, Philip Guston and Clyfford Still.

In September 2011 de Kooning's work was honored with a large-scale retrospective exhibition: de Kooning: A Retrospective September 18, 2011–January 9, 2012 at MoMA in New York City. Organized by John Elderfield it was the first major museum exhibition devoted to the full breadth and depth of de Kooning's career, containing nearly 200 works.

Biography[link]

De Kooning's parents, Leendert de Kooning and Cornelia Nobel, were divorced when he was about five years old, and he was raised by his mother and stepfather.^[1] His early artistic training included eight years at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts and Techniques.^[2] In the 1920s he worked as an assistant to the art director of a Rotterdam department store.^[3] de Kooning was one of the thirty-eight artists chosen from a general invitation to New York City metropolitan artists to design and paint the 105 public murals at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.^[4] His fellow muralist, David Margolis later recounted their 1932 trips to the Savoy Ballroom and de Kooning's "keen interest in jazz."^[5]

In 1938, probably under the influence of Arshile Gorky, de Kooning embarked on a series of male figures, including Two Men Standing, Man, and Seated Figure (Classic Male), while simultaneously embarking on a more purist series of lyrically colored abstractions, such as Pink Landscape and Elegy. As his work progressed, the heightened colors and elegant lines of the abstractions began to creep into the more figurative works, and the coincidence of figures and abstractions continued well into the 1940s. This period includes the representational but somewhat geometricized Woman and Standing Man, along with numerous untitled abstractions whose biomorphic forms increasingly suggest the presence of figures. By about 1945 the two tendencies seemed to fuse perfectly in Pink Angels.

In 1938, de Kooning met Elaine Marie Fried, later known as Elaine de Kooning, whom he married in 1943. She also became a significant artist. During the 1940s, he became increasingly identified with the Abstract Expressionist movement and was recognized as one of its leaders into the mid-1950s, while notoriously stating: "It is disastrous to name ourselves."^[3] In 1948, de Kooning had his first one-man show, which consisted of his black-and-white enamel compositions, at the Charles Egan Gallery in New York. He taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina in 1948 and at the Yale School of Art in 1950/51. In 1950, de Kooning was one of 17 prominent Abstract Expressionists and avant-garde artists to sign an open letter to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art accusing it of hostility towards “advanced art.”^[6]

The Willem de Kooning estate is represented by The Pace Gallery.

Mature works[link]

In 1946, too poor to buy artists' pigments, he turned to black and white household enamels to paint a series of large abstractions; of these works, Light in August (c. 1946) and Black Friday (1948) are essentially black with white elements, whereas Zurich (1947) and Mailbox (1947/48) are white with black. Developing out of these works in the period after his first show were complex, agitated abstractions such as Asheville (1948/49), Attic (1949), and Excavation (1950; Art Institute of Chicago), which reintroduced color and seem to sum up with taut decisiveness the problems of free-associative composition he had struggled with for many years.

The hallmark of de Kooning's style was an emphasis on complex figure ground ambiguity. Background figures would overlap other figures causing them to appear in the foreground, which in turn might be overlapped by dripping lines of paint thus positioning the area into the background.

De Kooning had painted women regularly in the early 1940s and again from 1947 to 1949. The biomorphic shapes of his early abstractions were derived from objects found in the studio. But it was not until 1950 that he began to explore the subject of women exclusively. In the summer of that year he began Woman I (located at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City), which went through innumerable metamorphoses before it was finished in 1952.

During this period he also created other paintings of women. These works were shown at the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1953 and caused a sensation, partially because they were figurative when most of his fellow Abstract Expressionists were painting abstractly, but also because of their blatant imagery. Aggressive brushwork and strategically placed high-key colors in these paintings merged with images of toothy snarls, overripe, pendulous breasts, enlarged eyes and blasted extremities to reveal a woman seemingly congruent with some of modern man's most widely held sexual fears. Some of these paintings also appeared to reference early Mesopotamian / Akkadian works, with the large eyes and squarely chiseled bodies.

The Woman paintings II through VI (1952–53) are all variants on this theme, as are Woman and Bicycle (1953; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York) and Two Women in the Country (1954). The deliberate vulgarity of these paintings contrast with the French painter Jean Dubuffet's Corps de Dame series of 1950, in which iconic female/goddess imagery was created with a topography of earth colours, and are generally perceived as less provocative.

From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, De Kooning entered a new phase of nearly pure abstractions more related to landscape than to the human figure. These paintings, such as Bolton Landing (1957) and Door to the River (1960), bear broad brushstrokes and calligraphic tendencies similar to works of his contemporary Franz Kline.

In 1963, De Kooning moved permanently to East Hampton, Long Island,^[8] and returned to depicting women while also referencing the landscape in such paintings as Woman, Sag harbor and Clam Diggers. He also turned to sculpture in later years, creating a number of works that were later cast in bronze.

In later years, de Kooning was diagnosed with the probability of suffering from Alzheimer's disease.^[3] After his wife Elaine died on February 1, 1989, his daughter, Lisa, and his lawyers, Lee and John Eastman were granted guardianship over De Kooning.^[3]

There is much debate over the significance of his 1980s paintings, which became clean, sparse, and almost graphic, while alluding to the biomorphic lines of his early works. Some have said that his very last works present a new direction of compositional complexity and color juxtaposition, and are prophetic of directions that some current painters continue to pursue. Some speculate that his mental condition and years of alcoholism had rendered him unable to carry out the mastery indicated in his early works. Others claim some of these paintings were removed from the studio and exhibited before de Kooning was finished with them. Unfortunately, de Kooning's last works have not been afforded the amount of critical commentary or substantial serious assessment that his earlier works received.^[9]

Exhibitions[link]

De Kooning's first solo show took place at the Charles Egan Gallery, New York, in 1948. His work has since been the subject of numerous museum retrospectives, including the Museum of Modern Art (1968, 2011–12), the Whitney Museum of American Art (1983), and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1994).

In 1974 the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, organized a show of De Kooning's drawings and sculpture that traveled throughout the United States.^[10] In 1995, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art organized the first major exhibition of paintings from the eighties, which traveled to international venues. Recent exhibitions of the 1980s works include "Willem de Kooning: Late Paintings", which opened at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2006 and traveled to the Museo Carlo Bilotti, Rome.^[11]

Recognition[link]

On September 14, 1964, De Kooning was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Lyndon Johnson. In 1986, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In 1979, he and Eduardo Chillida received the Andrew W. Mellon Prize, which was accompanied by an exhibition at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh.^[12]

Art market[link]

As the style of his later works continued to evolve into early 1989, his vintage works drew increasing profits; at Sotheby's auctions Pink Lady (1944) sold for US$3.6 million in 1987 and Interchange (1955) brought $20.6 million in 1989. In November 2006, Kooning's Woman III was sold by David Geffen to Steven A. Cohen for $137.5 million, making it the second most expensive painting ever sold at that time.

Estate[link]

Since 1989, De Kooning's oeuvre was controlled primarily by sculptor Lisa de Kooning, his only child and heir; attorney John Eastman, the son of de Kooning’s longtime attorney Lee Eastman; and John Silberman, an attorney who represented Lisa and Eastman in their court application to be appointed as de Kooning’s conservators and later represented his estate. De Kooning's art collection was then valued at $50 million to $150 million.^[13] By 1996, Lisa de Kooning and Eastman decided to put the work into a trust for the artist's benefit that would become a foundation after his death.^[14] After de Kooning’s death, Lisa and Eastman became co-executors of his estate, and, in an effort to protect the market for his work, they won a court order to seal details about the estate’s contents. They directed the dispersal of works in de Kooning’s possession at the time of his death and created the Willem de Kooning Foundation, which was established in 2001 and received a portion of the collection not sold or kept by Lisa De Kooning.^[15] The estate does have a small portion of art from the 1970s, but most of its work is from the 1980s.^[16] Since its establishment, the foundation has sold 18 works for a total of $13 million with the goal of funding its mission to catalogue and maintain its own collection and archive and facilitate museum exhibitions and scholarly research.^[17]

In 2010, the Pace Gallery was given the rights to the estate of Willem de Kooning. The estate had previously been handled by the Gagosian Gallery^[18], as well as by Matthew Marks, Lucy Mitchell-Innes and Anthony d'Offay.^[19]

See also[link]

• Abstract expressionism
• Action painting
• Elaine de Kooning
• Impasto
• Women in art
• Woman III

Notes[link]

1. ^ Willem de Kooning, Britannica.com, p1
2. ^ Marcia Brennan, Modernism's Masculine Subjects: Matisse, the New York School, and Post-Painterly Abstraction, MIT Press, p. 71. ISBN 0-262-02571-X
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Barbara Hess, Willem de Kooning 1904-1997: Content as a Glimpse, Taschen, 2004, p87. ISBN 3-8228-2135-7
4. ^ Monaghan, Frank, ed. (1939). Official Guide Book of the New York World's Fair 1939. New York: Exposition Publications, Inc.. pp. 30–31. 
5. ^ "Abstract Expressionism 1932". 1932: Willem de Kooning and Nini move to Greenwich Village.. Warholstars.org. http://www.warholstars.org/abstractexpressionism/timeline/abstractexpressionism32.html. Retrieved December 27, 2011. 
6. ^ Grimes, William (April 11, 2011). "Hedda Sterne, an Artist of Many Styles, Dies at 100". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/arts/design/hedda-sterne-artist-of-many-styles-dies-at-100.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries. Retrieved 18 April 2011. 
7. ^ Abstract Expressionism, by Barbara Hess (Taschen, 2005), p. 15.
8. ^ Willem de Kooning at Encyclopædia Britannica
9. ^ Perl, Jed (2011-11-03). "The Abstract Imperfect". The New Republic. http://www.tnr.com/article/art/magazine/96121/the-abstract-imperfect. Retrieved 19 October 2011. 
10. ^ Willem De Kooning Guggenheim Collection.
11. ^ Willem de Kooning: The Last Beginning, September 18 - October 27, 2007 Gagosian Gallery, New York.
12. ^ Willem De Kooning Guggenheim Collection.
13. ^ Andrew L. Yarrow (August 19, 1989), Conservators Named for de Kooning Assets New York Times.
14. ^ Carol Vogel (October 6, 1997), De Kooning Intrigues Live On New York Times.
15. ^ Kelly Devine Thomas (September 8, 2011), Shaping de Kooning’s Legacy ARTnews.
16. ^ Carol Vogel (October 6, 1997), De Kooning Intrigues Live On New York Times.
17. ^ Kelly Devine Thomas (September 8, 2011), Shaping de Kooning’s Legacy ARTnews.
18. ^ Carol Vogel (September 30, 2010), Pace Gallery to Represent De Kooning Estate New York Times.
19. ^ Laura Stewart (April 12, 1997), What price Willem de Kooning? The Daily Telegraph.

References[link]

• Marika Herskovic, American Abstract and Figurative Expressionism Style Is Timely Art Is Timeless An Illustrated Survey With Artists' Statements, Artwork and Biographies. (New York School Press, 2009). ISBN 978-0-9677994-2-1. pp. 76-79; p. 127; p. 136.
• Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s: An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press, 2003). ISBN 0-9677994-1-4. pp. 94-97.
• Marika Herskovic, New York School Abstract Expressionists: Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, 2000). ISBN 0-9677994-0-6. p. 16; p. 36; p. 106-109.
• Edvard Lieber, Willem de Kooning: Reflections in the Studio, 2000, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-4560-6
• ART USA NOW Ed. Lee Nordness; Vol.1, (Viking Press, 1963.) pp. 134–137.
• The American Presidency Project
• Lifetime Honors - National Medal of Arts
• Richard Shiff, On "Between Sense and de Kooning", The Montréal Review, September 2011.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Willem de Kooning

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Willem de Kooning

• Willem de Kooning at the Museum of Modern Art
• Willem de Kooning at Find a Grave
• Links to reproductions
• Willem de Kooning at Xavier Hufkens, Brussels
• Woman in the Pool (1969) Phoenix Art Museum
• Willem de Kooning in the National Gallery of Australia's Kenneth Tyler collection

Kooning may refer to:

• Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), Dutch/Dutch-American artist
• Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989), American artist

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Rauschenberg in 1999
Birth name	Milton Ernest Rauschenberg
Born	(1925-10-22)October 22, 1925 Port Arthur, Texas, United States
Died	May 12, 2008(2008-05-12) (aged 82) Captiva, Florida, United States
Nationality	American
Field	Assemblage
Training	Kansas City Art Institute Académie Julian Black Mountain College Art Students League of New York
Movement	Neo-Dada
Works	Canyon (1959), Monogram (1959)

Robert Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. Rauschenberg is well known for his "Combines" of the 1950s, in which non-traditional materials and objects were employed in innovative combinations. Rauschenberg was both a painter and a sculptor and the Combines are a combination of both, but he also worked with photography, printmaking, papermaking, and performance.^[1][2] He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1993.^[3]

Rauschenberg lived and worked in New York City as well as on Captiva Island, Florida until his death from heart failure on May 12, 2008.^[4]

Life and career[link]

Rauschenberg was born as Milton Ernest Rauschenberg in Port Arthur, Texas, the son of Dora Carolina (née Matson) and Ernest R. Rauschenberg.^[5][6][7] His father was of German and Cherokee ancestry and his mother of Anglo-Saxon descent.^[8][9] His parents were Fundamentalist Christians.^[8] Rauschenberg studied at the Kansas City Art Institute and the Académie Julian in Paris, France, where he met the painter Susan Weil. In 1948 Rauschenberg and Weil decided to attend Black Mountain College in North Carolina.^[10][11]

Josef Albers, a founder of the Bauhaus, became Rauschenberg's painting instructor at Black Mountain. Albers' preliminary courses relied on strict discipline that did not allow for any "uninfluenced experimentation".^[12] Rauschenberg described Albers as influencing him to do "exactly the reverse" of what he was being taught.^[4]

From 1949 to 1952 Rauschenberg studied with Vaclav Vytlacil and Morris Kantor at the Art Students League of New York,^[13] where he met fellow artists Knox Martin and Cy Twombly.^[14]

Rauschenberg married Susan Weil in 1950. Their only child, Christopher, was born July 16, 1951. They divorced in 1953.^[15] According to a 1987 oral history by the composer Morton Feldman, after the end of his marriage, Rauschenberg had romantic relationships with fellow artists Cy Twombly and Jasper Johns.^[16] An article by Jonathan D. Katz states that Rauschenberg's affair with Twombly began during his marriage to Susan Weil.^[17]

Rauschenberg died on May 12, 2008, on Captiva Island, Florida.^[18] He died of heart failure after a personal decision to go off life support,.^[19][20] Rauschenberg is survived by his partner of 25 years, artist Darryl Pottorf,^[20] his former assistant.^[13] Rauschenberg is also survived by his son, photographer Christopher Rauschenberg, and his sister, Janet Begneaud.

Artistic contribution[link]

Rauschenberg's approach was sometimes called "Neo Dadaist," a label he shared with the painter Jasper Johns.^[21] Rauschenberg was quoted as saying that he wanted to work "in the gap between art and life" suggesting he questioned the distinction between art objects and everyday objects, reminiscent of the issues raised by the "Fountain," by Dada pioneer, Marcel Duchamp. At the same time, Johns' paintings of numerals, flags, and the like, were reprising Duchamp's message of the role of the observer in creating art's meaning.

Alternatively, in 1961, Rauschenberg took a step in what could be considered the opposite direction by championing the role of creator in creating art's meaning. Rauschenberg was invited to participate in an exhibition at the Galerie Iris Clert, where artists were to create and display a portrait of the owner, Iris Clert. Rauschenberg's submission consisted of a telegram sent to the gallery declaring "This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so."

Robert Rauschenberg, Riding Bikes, Berlin, Germany, 1998.

By 1962, Rauschenberg's paintings were beginning to incorporate not only found objects but found images as well - photographs transferred to the canvas by means of the silkscreen process. Previously used only in commercial applications, silkscreen allowed Rauschenberg to address the multiple reproducibility of images, and the consequent flattening of experience that implies. In this respect, his work is contemporaneous with that of Andy Warhol, and both Rauschenberg and Johns are frequently cited as important forerunners of American Pop Art.

In 1966, Billy Klüver and Rauschenberg officially launched Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) a non-profit organization established to promote collaborations between artists and engineers.

In 1969, NASA invited Rauschenberg to witness the launch of Apollo 11. In response to this landmark event, Rauschenberg created his Stoned Moon Series of lithographs. This involved combining diagrams and other images from NASA's archives with photographs from various media outlets, as well as with his own work.^[22][23]

As of 2003 he worked from his home and studio in Captiva, Florida.

In a famously cited incident of 1953, Rauschenberg erased a drawing by de Kooning, which he obtained from his colleague for the express purpose of erasing it as an artistic statement. The result is titled Erased de Kooning Drawing.^[24][25] In 1964 Rauschenberg was the first American artist to win the Grand Prize at the Venice Biennale (Mark Tobey and James Whistler had previously won the Painting Prize). After that time, he enjoyed a rare degree of institutional support.

[edit] The White Paintings, Black Paintings, and Red Paintings

In 1951 Rauschenberg created his "White Paintings," in the tradition of monochromatic painting, whose purpose was to reduce painting to its most essential nature, and to subsequently lead to the possibility of pure experience.^[26] The "White Paintings" were shown at Eleanor Ward's Stable Gallery in New York during October 1953. They appear at first to be essentially blank, white canvas. However, one commentator said that "…rather than thinking of them as destructive reductions, it might be more productive to see them, as John Cage did, as hypersensitive screens – what Cage suggestively described as ‘airports of the lights, shadows and particles.’ In front of them, the smallest adjustments in lighting and atmosphere might be registered on their surface.^[27] Rauschenberg himself said that they were affected by ambient conditions, "so you could almost tell how many people are in the room." The Black Paintings of 1951 like the White Paintings were executed on multiple panels and were single colour works. Here Rauschenberg incorporated pieces of newspaper into the painting working the paper into the paint so that sometimes newspaper could be seen and in other places could not. By 1953-1954 Rauschenberg had moved from the monochromatic paintings of the White Painting and Black Painting series, to the Red Painting series. These paintings were created with diverse kinds of paint applications of red paint, and with the addition of materials such as wood, nails, newsprint and other materials to the canvas created complex painting surfaces, and were forerunners of Rauschenberg's well-known Combine series.^[26]

Combines[link]

Rauschenberg picked up trash and found objects that interested him on the streets of New York City and brought these back to his studio where they could become integrated into his work. He claimed he "wanted something other than what I could make myself and I wanted to use the surprise and the collectiveness and the generosity of finding surprises. And if it wasn't a surprise at first, by the time I got through with it, it was. So the object itself was changed by its context and therefore it became a new thing."^[28]

Rauschenberg's comment concerning the gap between art and life can be seen as a statement which provides the departure point for an understanding of his contributions as an artist. In particular his series of works which he called Combines served as instances in which the delineated boundaries between art and sculpture were broken down so that both were present in a single work of art. Technically "Combines" refers to Rauschenberg's work from 1954 to 1962, but the artist had begun collaging newsprint and photographic materials in his work and the impetus to combine both painting materials and everyday objects such as clothing, urban debris, and taxidermied animals such as in Monogram^[29] continued throughout his artistic life.

His transitional pieces that led to the creation of Combines were Charlene (1954) and Collection (1954) where he combined collage technique and started to incorporate objects such as scarves, comic strips, and faux architectural cornice pieces. Considered one of the first of the Combines, Bed (1955) was created by dripping red paint across a quilt. The quilt was later stretched and displayed as a work of art. Some critics according to the UK Telegraph considered the work to be a symbol for violence and rape.^[30]

Critics originally viewed the Combines in terms of the formal aspects of art, shape, color, texture, and the composition and arrangement of these. This 1960s view has changed over time so that more recently critics and art historians see the Combines as carrying codified messages difficult to decipher because there is no apparent order to the presentation of the objects.

Performance and dance[link]

From the early 1950s until 2007 Rauschenberg designed for dance. He began designing sets and costumes for Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and Trisha Brown and for his own productions.^[31] In the 1960s he was involved in the radical dance-theater experiments at and around Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village and was close to Cunningham-connected experimentalists like Carolyn Brown, Viola Farber, and Steve Paxton; he even choreographed himself. Rauschenberg’s full-time connection to the Cunningham company ended with its 1964 world tour.^[32]

Commissions[link]

In 1986, Rauschenberg was commissioned by BMW to paint a full size BMW 635 CSi for the sixth installment of the famed BMW Art Car Project. Rauschenberg's contribution was the first to include the wheels in the project, as well as incorporating previous works of art into the design. He also won a Grammy Award for his album design of Talking Heads' album Speaking in Tongues.

Exhibitions[link]

In 1951 Rauschenberg had his first one-man show at the Betty Parsons Gallery^[33] and in 1954 had a second one-man show at the Charles Egan Gallery.^[34] In 1955, at the Charles Egan Gallery, Rauschenberg showed Bed (1955), one of his first and certainly most famous Combines.^[35]

A retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1997), traveled to Houston, Cologne, and Bilbao (through 1999). Recent exhibitions were presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2005; traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and Moderna Museet, Stockholm, through 2007), and at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (2009; traveled to the Tinguely Museum, Basel, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and Villa e Collezione Panza, Varese, through 2010).^[36]

A memorial exhibition of photographs opened October 22, 2008, (on the occasion of what would have been his 83rd birthday) at the Guggenheim Museum.^[37]

Legacy[link]

Already in 1984, Rauschenberg announced his Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange, or ROCI, at the United Nations. This would culminate in a seven year, ten country tour to encourage "world peace and understanding," through Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Beijing, Lhasa (Tibet), Japan, Cuba, Soviet Union, Berlin, and Malaysia in which he left a piece of art, and was influenced by the cultures he visited. Paintings, often on reflective surfaces, as well as drawings, photographs, assemblages and other multimedia were produced, inspired by these surroundings, and this was considered some of his strongest works. The ROCI venture, supported by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., went on view in 1991.

In 1990, Rauschenberg created the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (RFF) to promote awareness of the causes he cared about, such as world peace, the environment and humanitarian issues. He also set up Change, Inc., to award one-time grants of up to $1,000 to visual artists based on financial need. Rauschenberg's will, filed in Probate Court on October 9, 2008, named his charitable foundation as a major beneficiary, along with Darryl Pottorf, Christopher Rauschenberg, Begneaud, his nephew Byron Richard Begneaud, and Susan Weil Kirschenbaum. The amounts to be given to the beneficiaries were not named, but the estate is "worth millions," said Pottorf, who is also executor of the estate.^[38]

The RRF today owns many works by Rauschenberg from every period of his career. In 2011, the foundation, in collaboration with Gagosian Gallery, presented “The Private Collection of Robert Rauschenberg,” selections from Rauschenberg's personal art collection; proceeds from the collection helped fund the endowment established for the foundation’s philanthropic activities.^[39] Also in 2011, the foundation launched its “Artist as Activist” print project and invited Shepard Fairey to focus on an issue of his choice. The editioned work he made was sold to raise funds for the Coalition for the Homeless.^[40] The RRF artist residency takes place at the late artist’s property in Captiva Island, Florida. The foundation also maintains the 19th Street Project Space in New York.

Art market[link]

In 2009, the Gagosian Gallery was selected to represent the estate of Rauschenberg; his work had previously been handled by Pace Gallery for more than 15 years. In 2010, Studio Painting (1960-61), one of Rauschenberg's "Combines", originally estimated at $6 million to $9 million, was bought from the collection of Michael Crichton for $11 million at Christie's, New York.^[41]

See also[link]

• Arte Povera
• Assemblage (art)
• Happening
• Experiments in Art and Technology
• Art Students League of New York
• Moon Museum

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Busch, Julia M., A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s (The Art Alliance Press: Philadelphia; Associated University Presses: London, 1974) ISBN 0-87982-007-1, ISBN 978-0-87982-007-7.
• Marika Herskovic, New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, 2000.) ISBN 0-9677994-0-6. p. 8; p. 32; p. 38; p. 294-297.
• Fugelso, Karl. "Robert Rauschenberg's Inferno Illuminations." In: Postmodern Medievalisms. Ed. Richard Utz and Jesse G. Swan (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2004). pp. 47–66.
• Sweeney, Louise M. "Rauschenberg's Worldwide Quest for Art and Ideas," The Christian Science Monitor, May 20, 1991.

External links[link]

• Robert Rauschenberg Foundation 2012

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Rauschenberg

• Robert Rauschenberg at the Museum of Modern Art
• Robert Rauschenberg biography on the New York Guggenheim Museum website.
• Current exhibitions on Artfacts.net
• Screening of Robert Rauschenberg's 1966 Film "Open Score" at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
• "OUR PICASSO?", Village Voice
• 1997 Vanity Fair Profile
• Art Quotations by Robert Rauschenberg - The Painter's Keys Resource of Art Quotations
• disorientations.com Obituary
• Dossier : Robert Rauschenberg, Combines (1953-1964) , exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, 2006
• Cardboard VI from the Cardboard Series (1971)
• Linoleum (After Robert Rauschenberg) Piece on Linoleum and Erased de Kooning Drawing at Triple Canopy (online magazine)

A Dutch American is an American of Dutch descent.

Following the exploration of the American East Coast by Henry Hudson on behalf of the Dutch East India Company in 1609, Dutch settlement in the Americas started in 1613. From then on a number of villages, including New Amsterdam on the East Coast, which would become the future world metropolis of New York City, were established by Dutch immigrants. According to the 2000 United States Census, more than 5 million Americans claim total or partial Dutch heritage^[1] Today the majority of the Dutch Americans live in Michigan, California, Montana, Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, Idaho, Utah, Iowa, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

Dutch presence in the present-day territory of the United States[link]

Early exploration[link]

Map of the Dutch Empire

Because of huge losses of trade ships on their long routes circumnavigating the African Cape, the so-called "spice trade" with the Dutch East Indies was very dangerous and of high risk for sailors, and for investors providing resources to commission and equip a vessel, and provide trade goods. The individual traders that had bid against each other for over a century thus realised that greater profit and a better distribution of the risk could be attained by joining forces, which led to the world's first corporate, publicly traded multinational firm, the VOC, founded in 1602. This took away the biggest financial risk, but the long and dangerous voyage remained. To reduce this risk as well, many explorers sought a northern passage, not knowing of its then-impossibility due to ice blockage. Returning, however, from another failed expedition to find a northern route to the Pacific Ocean, the first Dutch vessel arrived at what is now New York Harbor.

In 1602, Dutch government chartered the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC) with the mission of exploring a passage to the Indies and claiming any uncharted territories for the Dutch Republic. The first Dutchmen to come to the Americas were explorers under the command of the English captain Henry Hudson (himself in Dutch service) who arrived in 1609 and mapped what is now known as the Hudson River on the ship De Halve Maen. Their initial goal was to find an alternative route to Asia, but they found good farmland and plenty of wildlife instead.

Main areas in which Dutch Americans can be found.

Oldest Dutch settlement[link]

Principal Dutch colonies in North America

The earliest Dutch settlement was built around 1613, it consisted of a number of small huts built by the crew of the "Tijger" (Tiger) a Dutch ship under the command of Captain Adriaen Block which had caught fire while sailing on the Hudson in the winter of 1613. The ship was lost and Block and his crew established a camp ashore. In the spring, Block and his men did some explorations along the coast of Long Island. Block Island still bears his name. Finally, they were sighted and rescued by another Dutch ship and the settlement was abandoned.^[2]

Seventeenth-century migration[link]

In 1629, Dutch officials tried to expand the northern colony through a plan that promised "Liberties and Exemptions" to anyone who would ship fifty colonists to America at his own expense. Anyone who did this would be allowed to buy a stretch of land along the Hudson from the Dutch West India Company of about twelve miles, extending as far inland as the owner wanted. These landowners were called patroons and had complete jurisdiction over their domains as well as extensive trading privileges. They also received these rights in perpetuity. In this way, a form of feudalism, which had vanished in the Dutch Republic, was introduced in North America. The Patroonships were not a success; by 1635, the Dutch West India Company had bought back four of the five patroon ships originally registered in Amsterdam.

The Indians were, at this time, no longer consulted or offered/asked to sell their lands and the Dutch were confronted with a new phenomenon: Indian raids. As the local tribes had now realized that the Dutch were not simply visitors but people set to take over their land.

The Dutch realized that they had gone with the wrong approach as they offered great privileges to wealthy citizens instead of the poor ones. It was not until 1656 that the Dutch state abandoned its passivity and decided to actively support New Netherland. The Dutch state issued a proclamation which stated that "all mechanics and farmers who can prove their ability to earn a living here shall receive free passage for themselves, their wives and children".

The result of all this was an increase in population from an estimated 2,000 in 1648 to 10,000 in 1660. Although the New Netherland were Dutch, only about half the settlers were ethnically Dutch (the other half consisted mainly of Walloons and French Huguenots), and Manhattan grew increasingly multicultural. The rural areas, however, remained overwhelmingly Dutch for over two centuries. In 1664, the English seized the colony and renamed it New York. The Dutch briefly recaptured the colony, but during peace talks decided (under English pressure) to trade it for Suriname in South America which was more profitable.

Eighteenth and nineteenth-century migration[link]

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In the hundred years of British rule that followed the change of ownership of New Netherland, Dutch immigration to America came to an almost complete standstill. The only major group of organized settlers after the British takeover were a colony of two hundred Dutchmen and women who founded what is now Germantown in 1683.

Most of these settlers were Quakers who had come over in response to the appeal of William Penn. Penn, himself a Dutch Briton (his mother being from Rotterdam), had paid three visits to the Netherlands, where he published several pamphlets. Germantown is now generally thought to be of German origin, but it remained almost exclusively Dutch until the beginning of the eighteenth century. Only then did German immigration gain momentum, and soon dominated the area.

During the early nineteenth century, large numbers of Dutch farmers, forced by high taxes and low wages, started immigrating to America. They mainly settled down in the Midwest, especially Michigan, Illinois and Iowa. In the 1840s, Calvinist immigrants desiring more religious freedom immigrated. West Michigan in particular has become associated with Dutch American culture, and the highly conservative influence Dutch Reformed Church, centering on the cities of Holland and (to a lesser extent) Grand Rapids.

Waves of Catholic Dutch emigrants, initially encouraged in the 1840s by Father Theodore J. Van den Broek, emigrated from southern Netherlands to form communities in Wisconsin, primarily to Little Chute, Hollandtown, and the outlying farming communities. Whole families and even neighborhoods left for America. Most of these early emigrants were from villages near Uden, including Zeeland, Boekel, Mill, Oploo and Gemert.

The Dutch economy of the 1840s was stagnant and much of the motivation to emigrate was economic rather than political or religious. The emigrants were not poor, as the cost of passage, expenses and land purchase in America would have been substantial. They were not, however, affluent and many would have been risking most of their wealth on the chance of economic improvement. There were also political pressures at the time that favored mass emigrations of Catholics.^[3][4][5]

Twentieth-century migration[link]

A significant number of Dutchmen emigrating to the USA after World War II arrived from Indonesia via the Netherlands. After Indonesia, formerly known as the Dutch East Indies, gained independence its Indo-European (Eurasian) population known as Indies Dutchmen (Dutch: Indische Nederlanders) repatriated to the Netherlands. Around 60,000 continued their diaspora to the USA. This particular group is also known as Dutch-Indonesians, Indonesian-Dutch, or Amerindos.^[6]

"Nine tenths of the so called Europeans (in the Dutch East Indies) are the offspring of whites married to native women. These mixed people are called Indo-Europeans… They have formed the backbone of officialdom. In general they feel the same loyalty to Holland as do the white Netherlanders. They have full rights as Dutch citizens and they are Christians and follow Dutch customs. This group has suffered more than any other during the Japanese occupation.” Official US Army publication for the benefit of G.I.’s, 1944.^[7]

These Dutch Indos mainly entered the U.S.A. under legislative refugee measures and were sponsored by Christian organizations such as the Church World Service and the Catholic Relief Services. An accurate count of Indo immigrants is not available, as the U.S. Census classified people according to their self-determined ethnic affiliation. The Indos could have therefore been included in overlapping categories of "country of origin”, “other Asians," "total foreign”, “mixed parentage”, "total foreign-born” and “foreign mother tongue". However the Indos that settled in the USA via the legislative refugee measures number at least 25,000 people.^[8]

The original post-war refugee legislation of 1948, already adhering to a strict 'affidavit of support' policy, was still maintaining a colour bar making it difficult for Indos to emigrate to the USA. By 1951 American consulates in the Netherlands registered 33,500 requests and had waiting times of 3 to 5 years. Also the Walter-McCarren Act of 1953 adhered to the traditional American policy of minimizing immigrants from Asia. The yearly quota for Indonesia was limited to a 100 visas, even though Dutch foreign affairs attempted to profile Indos as refugees from the alleged pro-communist Sukarno administration.^[9]

The 1953 flood disaster in the Netherlands resulted in the Refugee Relief Act including a slot for 15,000 ethnic Dutch that had at least 50% European blood (one year later loosened to Dutch citizens with at least 2 Dutch grandparents) and an immaculate legal and political track record. In 1954 only 187 visas were actually granted. Partly influenced by the anti-Western rhetoric and policies of the Sukarno administration the anti-communist senator Francis E. Walter pleaded for a second term of the Refugee Relief Act in 1957 and an additional slot of 15,000 visas in 1958.^[10]

In 1958 the Pastore-Walter Act (Act for the relief of certain distressed alliens) was passed allowing for a one off acceptance of 10,000 Dutchmen from Indonesia (excluding the regular annual quota of 3,136 visas). It was hoped however that only 10% of these Dutch refugees would in fact be racially mixed Indos and the American embassy in The Hague was frustrated with the fact that Canada, where they were more strict in their ethnic profiling, was getting the full blooded Dutch and the USA was getting Dutch "all rather heavily dark". Still in 1960 senators Pastore and Walter managed to get a second two-year term for their act which was used by a great number of Dutch Indos.^[11]

Dutch (American) influence on America[link]

• During the American war of Independence the Dutch were active allies of the American rebels. From the island of Sint Eustatius they gave the Thirteen colonies one of the few opportunities to acquire arms. In 1778, British Lord Stormont claimed in parliament that "if Sint Eustatius had sunk into the sea three years before, the United Kingdom would already have dealt with George Washington".

• The Dutch were the first to salute the flag, and therefore the first to acknowledge the independence of, the United States on 16 November 1776.

• The Louisiana Purchase, also known as the "Great Land Acquisition", of 1803, is often seen as one of the most important events in American history after the Declaration of Independence. At the time it had a total cost of $15.000.000,- and it was financed in three ways. First of all by a down payment of $3.000.000,- in gold by the US government, and then two loans, one by the London-based Barings Bank, and one by the Amsterdam based Hope Bank. The original receipt still exists and is currently property of the Dutch ING Group, which has its headquarters in Amsterdam.

• In 1626, Peter Minuit obtained the island of Manhattan from the Indians in exchange for goods with a total value of 60 guilders ($24). He established the town of New Amsterdam, the future New York. The names of some other settlements that were established still exist today as boroughs and neighborhoods of New York: Brooklyn (Breukelen), Staten Island (named after the Dutch parliament, the 'Staten Generaal'), Harlem (Haarlem), Coney Island (Konijnen Eiland, means Rabbit Island) and Flushing (Vlissingen) .

• At least five American presidents had Dutch ancestry:
  • Martin van Buren, was the eighth President of the United States. He was a key organizer of the Democratic Party and the first president who was not of English, Irish, Scottish, or Welsh descent. He is also the only president not to have spoken English as his first language, but rather grew up speaking Dutch.
  • Theodore Roosevelt, was the 26th President of the United States. Roosevelt is most famous for his personality; his energy, his vast range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his “cowboy” persona. In 1901, he became President after the assassination of President William McKinley. Roosevelt was a Progressive reformer who sought to move the Republican Party into the Progressive camp.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the 32nd President of the United States. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945, and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. A central figure of the twentieth century, he has consistently been ranked as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents in scholarly surveys.
  • George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, were the 41st and 43rd Presidents of the United States respectively. They count members of the Schuyler family and the related Beekman family among their ancestors.^[12]

Dutch traditions[link]

This section requires expansion.

The Dutch introduced their own folklore, most famously Sinterklaas (the foundation of the modern day Santa Claus) and created their own as in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. [Wermuth 2001]

Dutch language and Dutch names in North America[link]

The first Dutch settlers lived in small isolated communities, and as a consequence were barely exposed to English. As the Dutch lost their own colonies in North America to the British, the Dutch settlers increasingly were exposed to other immigrants and their languages and the Dutch language gradually started to disappear.

In 1764, Dr. Archibald Laidlie preached the first English sermon to the Dutch Reformed congregation in New York City. Ten years later English was introduced in the schools. In Kingston, Dutch was used in church as late as 1808. A few years before, a traveler had reported that on Long Island and along the North River in Albany, Dutch was still the lingua franca of the elderly.^{[citation needed]}

Francis Adrian van der Kemp, who came to the United States as a refugee in 1788, wrote that his wife was able to converse in Dutch with the wives of Alexander Hamilton and General George Clinton. In 1847, immigrants from the Netherlands were welcomed in Dutch by the Reverend Isaac Wyckoff upon their arrival in New York. Wyckoff himself was a descendant of one of the first settlers in Rensselaerswyck, who had learned to speak English at school.

Until recently many communities in New Jersey adhered to the tradition of a monthly church service in Dutch. As late as 1905, Dutch was still heard among the old people in the Ramapo Valley of that state. Dutch is still spoken by the elderly and their children in Western Michigan. It was not until 1910 that Roseland Christian School in Chicago switched to an English curriculum from Dutch.^{[citation needed]}

In the first half of the twentieth century, the Dutch language was hardly spoken in North America, with the exception of first generation Dutch immigrants. The marks of the Dutch heritage - in language, in reference to historical Dutch people (for example Stuyvesant) and in reference to Dutch places (for example Brooklyn which stems from Breukelen) - can still be seen. There are about 35 Dutch restaurants and bakeries in the United States,^[13] most of them founded in the 20th century.

New York City for example has many originally Dutch street and place names which range from Coney Island and Brooklyn to Wall Street and Broadway. And up the river in New York State Piermont, Orangeburg, Blauvelt and Haverstraw, just to name a few places. In the Hudson Valley region there are many places and waterways whose names incorporate the word -kill, Dutch for "stream" or "riverbed", including the Catskill Mountains, Peekskill, and the Kill van Kull.

There are also some words in American-English that are of Dutch origin, like "cookie" (koekje) and "boss" (baas). And in some family names a couple of Dutch characteristics still remain. Like (a) the prefix "van" (as in Martin van Buren), (b) the prefix "de"(/"der"/"des"/"den") (as in Jared DeVries), (c) a combination of the two "van de ..." (as in Robert J. Van de Graaff), or (d) "ter"/"te"("ten"), which mean respectively (a) 'of' (possessive or locative), (b) 'the' (definite article), (c) 'of the ...' and (d) 'at the' ('of the'/'in the') (locative).

Similarities between Dutch and English are abundant. Examples include the article 'the' ('de' in Dutch), the words 'book' (boek), 'house' (huis), 'pen' (pen), and, 'street' (straat), among others. Dutch and English are both part of the West Germanic language group and share several aspects. Adaptation of place names between the languages is common, as was the case of New York, where several landmarks like Conyne Eylandt became more suitable to Anglophones (Coney Island).

Contact between other languages also created various creoles with Dutch as the base language. Two examples, Jersey Dutch and Mohawk Dutch, are now extinct. This is possibly due to the ease of transition from Dutch to English, stemming from a shared linguistic genealogy.

Little Chute, Wisconsin remained a Dutch-speaking community—known locally as “speaking Hollander”—into the twentieth century. As late as 1898, church sermons and event announcements were in Dutch.^[14] Dutch newspapers continued in the area—mainly in De Pere by Catholic clergymen—were published up until World War I .^[15] The only remaining publication that is written exclusively in Dutch is Maandblad de Krant, which is published monthly in Penticton, British Columbia and mailed to subscribers throughout the United States from Oroville, Washington.^[16]

The American state of Rhode Island is a surviving example of Dutch influence in Colonial America. In 1614, was christened as "Roodt Eylandt" (Rood Eiland in modern Dutch), meaning 'Red Island', referring to the red clay found on the island.^{[citation needed]}

Dutch-American Heritage Day[link]

As of 1990, November 16 is "Dutch-American Heritage Day". On November 16, 1776, a small American warship, the Andrew Doria, sailed into the harbour of the Dutch island of Sint Eustatius in the West Indies. Only four months before, the United States had declared its independence from Great Britain. The American crew was delighted when the governor of the island ordered that his fort's cannons be fired in a friendly salute. The first ever given by a foreign power to the flag of the United States, it was a risky and courageous act. Indeed, angered by Dutch trading and contraband with the rebellious colonies, the British seized the island a few years later. The Dutch recaptured the island in 1784.^[17]

Dutch-American Friendship Day[link]

April 19 is Dutch-American Friendship Day, which remembers the day in 1782 when John Adams, later to become the second president of the United States, was received by the States General in The Hague and recognized as Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America. It was also the day that the house he had purchased at Fluwelen Burgwal 18 in The Hague was to become the first American Embassy in the world.^[18]

Dutch Heritage Festivals[link]

Sinterklaas

Many of the Dutch heritage festivals that take place around the United States coincide with the blooming of tulips in a particular region. The Tulip Time Festival in Holland, Michigan is the largest such festival with other notable gatherings such as the Pella Tulip Time in Pella, Iowa; the Tulip Festival in Orange City, Iowa; Dutch Days in Fulton, Illinois; Let's Go Dutch Days in Baldwin, Wisconsin; Holland Days in Lynden, Washington; Holland Happening in Oak Harbor, Washington; and the Wooden Shoe Tulip Fest in Woodburn, Oregon. Often Dutch heritage festivals coincide with the blooming of the tulip. See Tulip Festival for additional explanations of some of these festivals. A Dutch Festival is also held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York; and a Holland Festival in Long Beach, California. A traditional Dutch Kermis Festival is celebrated in October in Little Chute, WI. During late November and early December a Dutch Winterfest is held in Holland, MI, to coincide with the traditional arrival of Sinterklaas; the "Dutch Santa Claus."^[19]

Religion[link]

The beginnings of the Reformed Church in America date to 1628. By 1740, it had 65 congregations in New York and New Jersey, served by ministers trained in Europe. Schools were few but to obtain their own ministers they formed "Queens College" (now Rutgers University) in 1766. In 1771, there were 34 ministers for over 100 churches. Until 1764, in at least three Dutch churches in New York City, all sermons were in Dutch; Theodore Roosevelt reports his grandfather's church used Dutch as late as 1810. Other churches with roots in Dutch immigration to the United States include the Christian Reformed Church, the Protestant Reformed Churches, the United Reformed Churches, the Netherlands Reformed Congregations, the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregations and the Free Reformed Church. Along with the Reformed churches, Roman Catholicism is the other major religion of Dutch Americans. Beginning in 1848, a significant number of Roman Catholics from the Dutch provinces of Noord Brabant and southern Gelderland went to create many settlements in northeastern Wisconsin.

Numbers[link]

Between 1820 and 1900, 340,000 Dutch emigrated from the Netherlands to the United States of America. In the aftermath of World War II, several tens of thousands of Dutch immigrants joined them, mainly moving to California and Washington. In several counties in Michigan and Iowa, Dutch Americans remain the largest ethnic group. Nowadays, most Dutch Americans (27%) live in California, followed by New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

According to the 2000 United States Census, more than 5 million Americans claim total or partial Dutch heritage. They are particularly concentrated around Grand Rapids, Michigan; Rock Rapids, Iowa; Sioux City, Iowa; Des Moines, Iowa; Fulton, Illinois, and Celeryville, Ohio. These areas are surrounded with towns and villages that were founded by Dutch settlers in the 19th century, such as Holland, Michigan and Zeeland, Michigan; Pella, Iowa, and Orange City, Iowa. Other Dutch enclaves include Lynden, Washington, Ripon, California, and places in New Jersey. It is estimated that, by 1927, as many as 40,000 Dutch settlers, primarily from Noord Brabant and Limburg, had immigrated to the United States, with the largest concentrations in the area near Little Chute, Wisconsin.^[20] By the early twentieth century, Little Chute was the largest Catholic Dutch community in the United States.^[21]

In California, the San Joaquin Delta had a major Dutch, Belgian and Frisian influence as settlers from those countries arrived since the 1850s after California had statehood. They drained away swamps and created artificial islands known as polders, constructed dikes to back away the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers flowing into the San Francisco Bay, also turned them into fertile farmlands and set up inland ports such as Stockton. Also their communities like Lathrop, Galt, Rio Vista and French Camp which were named for Belgians from Belgium are of both French (Walloon) or Dutch (Flemish) origin.

Not included among Dutch Americans are the Pennsylvania Dutch, a group of German Americans who settled in Pennsylvania in the colonial era and whose name is a corruption of the word "Deutsch", meaning "German".

Notable Dutch Americans[link]

Harmen Jansen Knickerbocker was an early Dutch settler of New York's Hudson River Valley.

In art, Willem de Kooning was a leading Abstract Expressionist painter, often depicting the human form in violent brush strokes and daring color juxtapositions. Muralist Anthony Heinsbergen interior designs are still seen today in most of the world's movie theaters.

In literature, Jan-Willem van de Wetering is renowned for his detective fiction; his most popular creation being that of Grijpstra and de Gier. Edward W. Bok was a Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographer and magazine editor. He is also credited with coining the term "living room". Greta Van Susteren's father was a Dutch American. Calvin Ziegler published poetry in Pennsylvania Dutch in the 19th Century. Pennsylvania Dutch is German from the Rhineland and not Dutch at all. Prolific poet Leo Vroman escaped from Nazi occupied Holland to the Dutch East Indies to end up in Japanese concentration camps. After the war he immigrated to the US. His Dutch Indonesian friend, fellow camp survivor and author Tjalie Robinson also lived in the US where he founded several cultural institutions. The author Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, writer of the book Soldier of Orange, was a Dutch resistance fighter, spy and decorated war hero that immigrated to the US after WWII. Born on Java in the Dutch East Indies, he died in his home on Hawaii.

In entertainment, actor, presenter and entertainer Dick Van Dyke is of Dutch descent, with a career spanning six decades. He is best known for his starring roles in Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Dick Van Dyke Show and Diagnosis: Murder. The X-Men trilogy starred Dutch actress Famke Janssen and Rebecca Romijn who is perhaps best known for her TV-roles on such comedies as Ugly Betty. Anneliese van der Pol, a singer and actress, is the star of Disney's Thats so Raven. Iconic star Audrey Hepburn was born in Belgium to a Dutch expatriate. Musicians Eddie and Alex van Halen are the lead guitarist, respectively drummer and co-founders of the band Van Halen, born to a Dutch father and Dutch-Indonesian mother. Singer Whitney Houston has Dutch ancestry. Don Van Vliet, stage name of musician Captain Beefheart, changed his middle name from Glen to the preposition to 1965 to honor his Dutch heritage. Actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar, known from the series Saved by the Bell, was born to a Dutch father and a Dutch-Indonesian mother. Matt Groening, the author of The Simpsons and Futurama has Dutch Mennonite ancestors, his family name originating from the Dutch city of Groningen.

In politics, Peter Stuyvesant was the last Director-General of the colony of New Netherland. Stuyvesant greatly expanded the settle of New Amsterdam, today known as New York. Stuyvesant's administration built the protective wall on Wall Street, and the canal that became Broad Street, known today as Broadway. The prestigious Stuyvesant High School is named after him. Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, presidents of the United States, were not only Dutch descent, but cousins. Martin Van Buren was another president of Dutch descent. Martin Kalbfleisch served as a US Representative for the state of New York. Today, Pete Hoekstra is a long-running congressman for the state of Michigan. Jacob Aaron Westervelt was a renowned and prolific shipbuilder and Mayor of New York (1853–1855)

In science and technology, Nicolaas Bloembergen won the Nobel Prize in 1981 for his work in laser spectroscopy. He was also awarded the Lorentz Medal in 1978. Physicists Samuel Abraham Goudsmit and George Eugene Uhlenbeck proposed the concept of electron spin. Goudsmit was also the scientific head of the Operation Alsos mission in the Manhattan Project. Tjalling Koopmans was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1975.

In astronomy, Maarten Schmidt pioneered the research of quasars. Astronomer Gerard Kuiper discovered two new moons in our solar system and predicted the existence of the Kuiper belt, which is named in his honor. Popular astronomer Bart J. Bok won the Klumpke-Roberts Award in 1982 and the Bruce Medal in 1977. Jan Schilt invented the Schilt photometer.

In sports, baseball player and twice World Series champion Bert Blyleven gained fame for his curveball.

In religion, Albertus van Raalte was a Reformed Church of America pastor who led the Dutch immigrants who founded the city of Holland, Michigan in 1846. Louis Berkhof, a Reformed systematic theologian, is greatly studied today in seminaries and Bible colleges. Herman Hoeksema, a theologian, was instrumental in the series of events that precipitated the creation of the Protestant Reformed Church. Prominent Christian author Lewis B. Smedes wrote Forgive and Forget, an influential work discussing a religious view on sexuality and forgiveness.

See also[link]

	United States portal
	Netherlands portal

• European American
• Hyphenated American
• Netherlands–United States relations
• Dutch, the magazine

Notes and references[link]

Further reading[link]

• Bratt, James H. Dutch Calvinism in Modern America: A History of a Conservative Subculture. Eerdmans, 1984.
• Corwin, S. T. History of the Dutch Reformed Church in the United States (1895).
• De Gerald, F. Jong The Dutch in America, 1609-1974. Twayne, 1975, short survey
• Doezema, Linda Pegman. Dutch Americans: A Guide to Information Sources. Gale Research, 1979. Bibliography
• Ganzevoort, Herman, and Mark Boekelman, eds. Dutch Immigration to North America. Toronto: Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1983.
• Goodfriend, Joyce D. Benjamin Schmidt, and Annette Stott, eds. Going Dutch: The Dutch Presence in America, 1609-2009 (2008)
• Kim, Sung Bok. Landlord and Tenant in Colonial New York: Manorial Society, 1664-1775 (1987)
• Kirk, Gordon W. The Promise of American Life: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth-Century Immigrant Community, Holland, Michigan, 1847-1894. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1978.
• Kroes, Rob. The Persistence of Ethnicity: Dutch Calvinist Pioneers in Amsterdam, Montana. University of Illinois Press, 1992.
• Kroes, Rob, and Henk-Otto Neuschafer, eds. The Dutch in North America: Their Immigration and Cultural Continuity. Amsterdam: Free University Press, 1991.
• Kromminga, John. The Christian Reformed Church: A Study in Orthodoxy. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1949.
• Adrian C. Leiby; The Revolutionary War in the Hackensack Valley: The Jersey Dutch and the Neutral Ground, 1775-1783 Rutgers University Press. 1962.
• Lucas, Henry. Netherlanders in America: Dutch Immigration to the United States and Canada, 1789-1950. University of Michigan Press, 1955.
• Nissenson, S. G. The Patroon's Domain 19379
• Scheltema, Gajus and Westerhuijs, Heleen (eds.),Exploring Historic Dutch New York. Museum of the City of New York/Dover Publications, New York (2011). ISBN 978-0-486-48637-6
• Schreuder, Yda. Dutch Catholic Immigrant Settlement in Wisconsin, 1850-1905. New York: Garland, 1989.
• Swierenga, Robert P. The Forerunners: Dutch Jewry in the North American Diaspora. Wayne State University Press, 1994.
• Swierenga, Robert P. ed. The Dutch in America: Immigration, Settlement, and Cultural Change. Rutgers University Press, 1985.
• Swierenga, Robert P., "Faith and Familiy --Dutch Immigration and Settlement in the United States, 1820–1920" (Ellis Island Series.) New York: Holmes and Meyer. 2000.
• Taylor, Lawrence J. Dutchmen on the Bay: The Ethnohistory of a Contractual Community. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.
• Thernstrom, Stephan, ed. Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. Harvard University Press, 1980.
• Van Jacob Hinte. Netherlanders in America: A Study of Emigration and Settlement in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries of the of America. Ed. Robert P. Swierenga . Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1985. translation of a 1928 Dutch-language book
• Thomas S. Wermuth. Rip Van Winkle's Neighbors: The Transformation of Rural Society in the Hudson River Valley (2001)
• Wabeke, Bertus Harry Dutch emigration to North America, 1624-1860
• Carl Wittke, We Who Built America: The Saga of the Immigrant (1939), ch 2, 11
• Milwaukee Sentinel, July 15, 1898 article on Little Chute, Wisconsin

Primary sources

• Herbert J. Brinks, Dutch American Voices: Letters from the United States, 1850-1930 (1995)
• Lucas, Henry, ed. Dutch Immigrant Memoirs and Related Writings. 2 vols. Assen, The Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1955.

Links[link]

• Article about Dutch immigration to the USA (1945-2000)
• Little Chute Historical Society, Little Chute, Wisconsin