Untitled (Vivid Facescape), 1989

Lucebert is a renowned Dutch poet-painter, often cited as one of the biggest inspirations for a lot of the Dutch poetry that has followed his own. Lucebert found his initial success as a member of the Experimentele Groep Holland, which later went on to merge with the much bigger force of CoBrA. The oft-quoted line of poetry ‘Alles van waarde is weerloos (everything of value is defenceless) is shared through a variety of different mediums, most notably as a neon sign atop a building in Rotterdam. Lucebert’s poetry was free expression of his own personality and views on life, and was often a blistering attack on the hypocrisy and pitfalls of societal respectability at the time – his first public appearance as a poet in Amsterdam was executed with the reading of a poem ‘Love-letter to our tortured bride, Indonesia’ - a direct and disparaging response to the Dutch military aggression towards Indonesia in 1948.