Wilploo collection - Art in Home/Art from Home

‘By way of introduction, she has lived in The Hague for almost 25 years, has been a Pulchri member for 40 years and now lives in Enschede. Because possession brings with it responsibility, both to that possession and to its creators, she decided on this sales exhibition. It is important to her to see how the artworks-with-a-story find their way to new - and she hopes also many young - collectors,

She bought her first work: The man from Tollund by Belgian Cobra painter Serge Vandercam in 1964 when she was 22 on the installment from Hans Sonnenberg of the Rotterdam gallery Delta. When Hans received a cultural award from the city of Rotterdam in 2012, she wrote to him in a letter: ‘....Hans, if you hadn't made it possible for me to do that on instalment back then, I would never have built the collection I have now....’. To be clear: the Art Purchase Scheme did not yet exist.  

She inherited collecting from her father, who owned a large art collection before the war. He had to sell it because of the fall of the English Pound, just a piece of history in between for the young reader. She herself always points to a distance of 4 cm between thumb and forefinger when it comes to the budget used to build the Wilploo collection. It is a matter of making choices. And what pleasure she derives from the art and the long-standing relationship with the artists.

The Rijksmuseum Twenthe (RMT) has received donations several times in recent years and in 2022 it had the exhibition Verglijdend Landschap (Slipping Landscape) there on the occasion of its 80th anniversary. But like all museums, the RMT is also bound by strict rules when it comes to collecting area and size. So there is much beauty left. Children and grandchildren have been allowed to pick but do not want to sleep with art under their beds, as one put it. 

Sixty-two years of learning to look carefully has paid off. Whether visitors to her exhibition will always agree with her choice, the exhibition will tell. If she sees one common thread in my collection, it is that the works are made with integrity and craftsmanship.

The collection offered for sale in Pulchri Studio includes post-war art movements: Cobra, realist, (lyrical) abstract. It comprises works in oil on canvas (Nic. Blans sr and jr, Ulf Göpfer, Henk Schurink, diptych by Bert Loerakker) as well as watercolour (Lau Heidendaal, Daniëlle Vidal), gouache (Eugène Brands, Serge Vandercam), drawings (a.o. Manfred Schneider) and graphic work, including a large lino by Elsbeth Cochius, which will get a solo in the RMT next year. Also work in textiles (Emiel van der Beek, Barbara Broekman) and many small works: Jenny Dalenoord, Ruth Haitsma-Bergmann, Jan Schoonhoven, Peter Verdonk, Kees Andrea and others. In addition, (wall) objects by Eddy Stikkelorum, Johan Claassen, Yvonne Mostard and Johnny Rolf, among others. Many works of art are accompanied by documentation on the artist and sometimes on the work of art itself, which you receive with your purchase. You're a collector, aren't you?’