Sculptor Martijn Troost was born and raised in Nuenen, the village where Vincent van Gogh lived for two years and where he painted his Potato Eaters. Van Gogh seemed to be present everywhere for Martijn, not only as the world famous painter but also as a fellow villager. Where Vincent wandered past the wheat fields, pollard willows and hay bales, and inspired his works, Martijn also walked as a boy. Later Martijn moved to Amsterdam and his studio is not far from where Vincent lived with his uncle. Nevertheless, it goes without saying that the two artists are not comparable, if only because Vincent worked with paint and cloth while Martijn does so with bronze and stone.
As part of a television series, in 2012 Martijn was asked to gradually ‘work back’ various paintings by Rembrandt to their original sketches. This challenging assignment aroused a new interest in Martijn: what did the great Dutch works look like at an earlier stage? He remembered Van Gogh and his old fellow villagers, the potato eaters. What did the first sketches look like and what would their faces have looked like from the other side? This idea fascinated him and eventually he decided to model the heads in a workshop at an old shipyard in Amsterdam-Noord. He wanted to do justice to the portraits and was not quickly satisfied so he entered a long period of examining, beginning, trying, modifying, refining, evaluating, disapproving and starting over.
And piece by piece, the heads of Francis, Cordelia, Sientje and Anthonius came to life under his kneading hands. To reproduce the heads, he then made a mould in which cast resin or bronze can be poured. The potato eaters in cast resin are manufactured at an injection moulding plant in Giessen and the bronze heads at a bronze foundry in Waardenburg. But whichever of the two materials you choose; the result is beautiful and the potato eaters are ready to join you at your dining table!
Martijn Troost
Martijn has inherited his creativity from both his parents: his father, Albert Troost, was a renowned glass artist and director of the Jan van Eyck Academy. Examples of his work are the glazing of the Malpertuis church and the stained glass windows of the Sint Servaas church in Maastricht. His mother, Antoinette Wentholt, painted and was Director of the Academy of Industrial Design Eindhoven.
Since his studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy visual artist Martijn Troost has built up a beautiful collection of drawings and sculptures, but he also makes commissioned props for theatre, commercials and film and teaches at the Academy of Architecture inAmsterdam.
Saskia Rinsma
Co founder and partner to Martijn is Saskia Rinsma. She is an actress, theatre maker and writer for theatre, film, television and radio. As a drama coach and communication trainer she teaches others to act, audition and present.
