Brugman, Berrie

Berry Brugman was born in Almelo in 1915. After secondary school he went to the art academy in Arnhem; he graduated in 1940. During the war Brugman fought in the battle of Grebbeberg and was imprisoned in the concentration camp of Amersfoort. Afterwards (1942) he left for Amsterdam to continue his training in portrait and model painting with Jos Rovers. He also wanted to experience, together with other painters, how the contemporary art of that time was developing. Mastery of the métier was essential to him. In 1943, he married Janny Brugman-de Vries (Sneek, 28 October 1918 - Almelo, 16 March 2006). Janny was a Dutch sculptor. She made sculptures, plastics and mosaics for various parks and buildings. Forced by war circumstances, Berry returned to Almelo and settled there as a painter and joined the Twentsche Kunstkring. After the liberation, he made study trips to France, England, Italy, Canada and Germany, among other places. In 1973 he became a member of the Amsterdam artists' association De Stuwing. In 1984, together with his wife, the sculptress Janny Brugman-de Vries, he received the Johanna van Buren Cultuurprijs from the Hellendoorn municipality. Berry Brugman was an expressionist and strived for figurative forms, his work touched on the abstract, but never became completely abstract. Colour was very important in his work. His deepest source of inspiration was the nature of Twente. He belonged to expressionists such as Constant Permeke (School of Sint-Martens-Latem), Charley Toorop (Bergense School), Hendrik Werkman (Groningse Ploeg), Hendrik Chabot (Artists Group R 33) and Charles Eyck (Limburgse School). In addition, Berry Brugman had a deeply religious disposition by nature. He was therefore a religious, socially committed painter whereby the existential suffering of mankind was personified for him by the suffering of Christ; another source of inspiration. His subjects were the seasons, landscapes, figures, portraits, religion, war, famine and flower still lifes.
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