Het besluit om beeldhouwer vervolgde hij met een bezoek aan Nederland waar de beeldhouwer Starreveld hem verder bekwaamde in de techniek, met name in het bronsgieten. Rond 1963 vestigde het gezin Zitman zich in een eeuwenoude suikermolen in de heuvels boven Caracas die Zitman wist om te bouwen tot een unieke woon- en werkplek. Zijn vroegste sculpturale werk – een groep van 23 kleinplastieken – werd in 1968 geëxposeerd in het belangrijkste kunstmuseum van Caracas en bracht hem de nodige erkenning. 

Zitman werd professor aan de plaatselijke academie en als kunstenaar groeide hij uit tot de Botéro van Venezuela. Kort daarop werd hij bezocht door Dina Vierny, het model van Maillol en Matisse. Als enige erfgenaam van de eerste bouwde zij in het naoorlogse Parijs een florerende kunsthandel op. In 1995 opende zij in de Rue de Grénelles het Musée Maillol. Haar kennismaking met Zitman leidde direct tot de aankoop van zijn volledige oeuvre en het begin van zijn internationale loopbaan, want Vierny zou tentoonstellingen van haar ‘cher sculpteur’ over de hele wereld organiseren. Musée Maillol / Fondation Dina Vierny besteedt permanent aandacht aan Zitmans werk en wordt naast de kunstenaar de grootste bruikleengever van de tentoonstelling in Beelden aan Zee. 

Schenking Beelden aan Zee

Tussen Theo en Lida Scholten, stichters van museum Beelden aan Zee en het echtpaar Zitman is in de afgelopen decennia een vriendschappelijke band gegroeid nadat de Scholtens in 1973 een werk hadden aangekocht. Toen Beelden aan Zee zijn poorten opende was het hun grote wens een tentoonstelling aan zijn werk te wijden.
De overzichtstentoonstelling in museum Beelden aan Zee is het Nederlandse debuut van de inmiddels 80-jarige kunstenaar.

Foreword

The life story of the artist Cornelis Zitman cannot be told often enough.

In the 1940’s this builder’s son from Leiden attended the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague where he made friends with Co Westerik and fell in love with Vera Roos. When the defense of the Dutch colonial empire threatened to call up the young painter, he fled to Venezuela.

In 1948 Vera Roos, his fiancé, followed him and they settled in the old colonial town of Coro, where he worked in a small construction company and learned a lot from two Italian cabinetmakers, immigrants like himself.

In the meantime, Zitman continued to sketch and paint in his free time.

After moving to the capital Caracas, around 1950, he started his own furniture factory that developed into a company called Tecoteca, a kind of Ikea. But in 1958, during a holiday on the island of Grenada he came to the conclusion that he had had enough of the business and they stayed for three years. 

The young family then stayed for three years in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, as Zitman wanted to learn the craft of bronze casting which he did at Pieter Starreveld’s foundry in Amersfoort.

But the Zitmans had too much Latin verve to settle in the polder. This became abundantly clear when Zitman shifted the front door of his house from one canal to another, driving the municipal authorities to despair. In about 1964 Zitman was invited to teach at the design department of the School of Architecture in Caracas and he and his family settled in the hills above Caracas in a centuries-old sugar mill that Zitman converted into a unique place for living and working as a sculptor. His earliest sculptural work – a group of 23 small-scale sculptures – was exhibited in 1968 in the major art museum of Caracas. He enjoyed growing recognition as a visual artist. Shortly afterwards he received a visit from Dina Vierny, the famous artist’s model who had established a flourishing art business in post-war Paris and who would open the Musée Maillol in 1995. Vierny’s meeting with Zitman resulted not only in the purchase of much of his works, but also signalled the start of his international career, as Vierny would organize exhibitions of her ‘cher sculpteur’ all over the world.

Zitman is unknown in The Netherlands. Only two museum collections there have any of his work: at Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam (sketches) and Beelden aan Zee Museum in Scheveningen (two sculptures). Queen Beatrix and premier Lubbers were presented with works by Zitman on a state visit from the Venezuelan president, and some private collections include Zitman pieces. Over the past decades a bond of friendship has grown between Theo and Lida Scholten, founders of Beelden aan Zee Museum, and Cornelis and Vera Zitman. After the Scholtens bought their first Zitman in 1973 at the Amsterdam Gallery d’Eendt, they sought out Zitman in Caracas. When Beelden aan Zee opened its doors in 1994 it was the Scholtens’ great wish to devote an exhibition to Zitman’s work. The upcoming donation of six sculptures by the American collector couple Rothenberg brought that exhibition within sight. In 2005 Zitman thereupon decided to donate all the sculptures from his debut exhibition in Caracas to Beelden aan Zee. These two donations are the core of the first retrospective of the sculptor Cornelis Zitman on native soil – with 100 works.

My great thanks go in the first instance to Cornelis and Vera Zitman, for their generous contributions and stirring assistance in everything. Daniel and Suzanne Rothenberg have ensured that the restless Zitman has now dropped an anchor in The Netherlands after all. I thank Dick den Haas, former ambassador to Venezuela, and Bertrand Lorquin, curator of the Musée Maillol in Paris, for their excellent contributions to the catalogue. Patronage of the project by the current ambassador Hinkinus Nijenhuis has been extremely important. Art historian Joke Horde once again coordinated the exhibition and publication to perfection. Finally I would like to extend my gratitude to Dina Vierny, Olivier Lorquin, Vincent Mentzel, Wim Weyland and all those who have given works on loan for their cooperation. 

Jan Teeuwisse

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