Fondation Constant

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Fondation Constant

Fondation Constant is an art foundation dedicated to the Dutch artist Constant Nieuwenhuys known as C We celebrate this fact with the program Constant 1 0 1.

Constant 1 0 1 | On Our Means and Perspectives
From July 2021 till July 2022 Fondation Constant celebrates that visual artist Constant Nieuwenhuys (1920-2005), known as Constant, was born 101 years ago. Where 100 years stands for a complete era to look back on, 101 stands for the transition to the next centennial. We are looking ahead. Constant 1 0 1 is a multidisciplinary program of projects in c

ollaboration with Dutch museums, presentation institutions, archives, individual makers, magazines, publishers and educational institutes. To honour the artist’s profound appreciation for the French language the foundation will be refered to as Fondation Constant. Fondation Constant is a not for profit organisation and your donations are always welcome and ever necessary: paypal.me/FondationConstantNL

14/04/2026

Not all our contemporary projects happen with an audience.

Five third year students of the Master Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage from the UVA are working on the restoration of Observatorium [1956].

First step is to study the object, the material (PMMA) and Constant’s own thoughts on conservation of his work.

The next step?
Experimentation with the material, attempting to replicate the break, and try-out the different fixes.

Object: Observatorium II [1956], 52 x 48 x 48.5 cm, brass & plexiglass, Collection Fondation Constant, NL

18/03/2026

New Humans
Memories of the Future
[with six works by Constant included in the exhibition!]  New Museum, NYC, USA 12 March - 21 August, 2026

This exhibition explores how technological developments have inspired evolving definitions of the “human.”
New Humans illuminates artists’ evolving visions of the future. The exhibition surveys the myriad shapes that humanity might take, from robots and cyborgs to haunting, seemingly alien life forms, and moves beyond the field of art by bringing together utopian architects, sci-fi filmmakers, and eccentric writers who imagine physical, virtual, and even post-human worlds. In an age when technological advancements and their unintended consequences seem to be accelerating at uncontrollable rates, New Humans proposes art as a collective form of creative prognostication—a vital self-portrait of the humans we may become. 
📷 Grote gele sector [1967], 41 x 131 x 1 55 cm, mixed media | Spatiovore V [1960], 64 x 105 x 155,1 cm, mixed media | Klein labyrint , 70 x 35 x 56 cm, mixed media | Hangende sector [1961], 76 x 130,1 x 99 cm, mixed media | Rode sector [1958], 27,1 x 96,6 x 77,5 cm, mixed media | Fragment van een sector [1969], 62 x 144 x 162 cm | Collection Kunstmuseum Den Haag, NL | photos: Tom Haartsen

18/03/2026

Four Times Constant - https://mailchi.mp/a350f2a940bb/constant-101-on-our-means-and-perspectives-10594181

13/03/2026

Things you only see when you’re face to face with a work.

Ode à l’Odéon [1969] is currently at display at the TEFAF, so I took the opportunity to see the work in real live.

Every time I’m surprised about how much more I see.

It struck me how obvious it is that this is the first painting after Constant focused on building his model and constructions for a while.

The colours and materials he uses are the same materials he uses for his models and constructions. And the dash of red that he uses in most of his oil paintings till 1982, doesn’t appear until the painting Erotic Space in 1971.

And then someone pointed out the little figure in the top right quadrant of the painting.

Do you recognise this figure?

Art historians sometimes use the term automimesis when artists (consciously or not) mirror their own features or persona in the figures they create throughout their work.

TEFAF 14-19 March MECC, Maastricht, Netherlands
Borzo Gallery & Mayor Gallery, stand 449

11/03/2026

FOUR TIMES CONSTANT
What does an exhibition about fabric frenzy, a stair obsession, an architect posse, and humans jacked into tomorrow’s technological tool have in common?   You guessed it, they all exhibit works by Constant.
His art globe-trots from Amersfoort to NYC… catch the wanderlust if you can!

Stairway to…? an exhibition about ladders and stairs featuring more than 40 artists
Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, NL 31 January till 10 May, 2026

New Humans: Memories of the Future
New Museum, NYC, USA 21 March till 21 August, 2026

Liga Nieuw Beelden. totaal nieuwe wereld
Atelier Volten, Amsterdam, NL 11 April till 08 November, 2026

Wilde Rokken. Cobra art as Textile
Museum Cobra, Amstelveen, NL 24 April till 06 September, 2026

10/03/2026

Constant at TEFAF Maastricht 2026! ✨

During TEFAF Maastricht 2026, Gallery Borzo presents Constant’s iconic Ode à l’Odéon (1969) from the New Babylon series, shown alongside Two Towers [1959] and Star Sign [1956]. This marks a rare occasion: Ode à l’Odéon, on display at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag since 1974, now returns to the public eye in the art market. The presentation offers a remarkable opportunity to revisit one of Constant’s most celebrated visions of the New Babylon project.

Stand 447/449 @ Borzo Gallery & Mayor Gallery.   Stand 510 @ Jaski unveils a rare CoBrA gem: Figur on Purple Background [1951], side by side with the one-of-a-kind sculpture Verstrikte vogel [1947], a survivor from Constant’s early period.

📍 MECC Maastricht, Netherlands | 14–19 March, 11:00–19:00

📷 Constant, Ode à l’Odéon [1969] 190,7 x 200,2 cm, oil on canvas, collection Fondation Constant, NL | Twee torens [1959], 95 x 46 x 43,5 cm, mixed media, collection Fondation Constant, NL | Sterrenbeeld, 1956, 35,6 x 50 cm, oil on canvas, collection Fondation Constant, NL | Figuur op paarse achtergrond [1951], 89 x 133,3 cm, oil on canvas, priv. coll. | Verstrikte vogel [1947], 112,7 x 74,5 x 70 cm, iron sculpture, collection Jaski, NL | photos: Tom Haartsen

05/03/2026

Constant in the Big 🍎 and a Tribute to Rebels ✊🏽 - https://mailchi.mp/67b183b7ac36/constant-101-on-our-means-and-perspectives-10593909

19/12/2025

“New Babylon is not a city, but a way of living.”
— Constant Nieuwenhuys

Between 1956 and 1974, Constant developed New Babylon, a visionary project that redefined the relationship between art, architecture and society. Conceived as a global network of transformable spaces, New Babylon imagined a future in which automation had liberated humanity from labour — allowing play, creativity and collective life to become central values.

In his book on Constant, Freddy de Vree describes New Babylon not as a utopian fantasy, but as a critical model: a tool to think differently about freedom, social organisation and the role of the artist in society.

This carousel introduces key moments from the New Babylon project — drawings, models and documentary images that reveal how Constant worked across disciplines to give form to a radical idea of life beyond work.

04/12/2025

Coming up at Veilinghuis De Zwaan:
Constant Nieuwenhuys 91920-2005) – Child with Flower and Moon (1949)
From the collection of Aldo & Hannie van Eyck

Painted in 1949, Child with Flower and Moon is a painting by Constant Nieuwenhuys from the Cobra years, made while he was actively exploring themes of childhood, nature, and imagination

What makes this work especially meaningful is the deep bond between Constant and Aldo van Eyck. When Constant, Corneille, and Appel first gathered around the Van Eycks’ home on the Binnenkant, they immediately recognised a kindred spirit in Aldo—someone who shared their belief in imagination, intuition, and a radical break from rigid artistic traditions. It was in this setting that the Experimentele Groep Nederland formed, soon leading to the founding of COBRA in 1948.

Aldo wasn’t just a supporter—he was a collaborator, a catalyst, an intellectual ally. At his home the artists debated, created, and shaped new ideas; his library, his collection, and his openness played a profound role in the group’s early development. Constant’s own manifesto in Reflex—“A painting is not a construction of colours and lines, but an animal, a night, a cry, a human being, or all of these together”—resonates deeply in this small, glowing work, where childlike wonder and cosmic symbolism meet.

Today, Child with Flower and Moon returns to the public eye as part of the sale of the Aldo & Hannie van Eyck collection at De Zwaan. A tender piece of artistic and personal history—born from friendship, collaboration, and the shared dream of reshaping art after the war.

🌙🌼

Auction: 10-11 December 2025, De Zwaan, Amsterdam
Lot 1040
Provenance: directly from the artist to Aldo & Hannie van Eyck
More on Constant & the Van Eycks: stichtingconstant.nl  📷 Constant, Child with Flower and Moon, 1949, 17,2 x 19,9 cm, oil paint on linen, collection Aldo & Hannie van Eyck | Child with Flower and Moon, 1949, original dimensions | photo: Tom Haartsen

StichtingConstant DutchArt TessVanEyck ModernArt PostWarArt

27/11/2025

Revisiting a 1952 Gem

In 1952, Constant Nieuwenhuys and poet Jan G. Elburg created the portfolio Het Uitzicht van de Duif: one cover and nine colour woodcuts by Constant with poems by Elburg, published in a small edition of 125 copies plus four artist’s copies.

Made in the first years after Cobra, these prints show Constant moving towards a more abstract visual language, where colour and spatial composition become central. This 1950s experimentation with space and colour was later examined in the exhibition Constant. Ruimte + Kleur / Space + Colour at the Cobra Museum (2016), which traced his development from Cobra towards New Babylon and included large-scale constructions realised with, among others, Aldo van Eyck.

On 10 December 2025, Veilinggebouw De Zwaan in Amsterdam presents The Aldo & Hannie van Eyck Art Collection, a unique ensemble in which modern art is shown alongside a long-built collection of non-Western and so-called “tribal” art.

Placing Het Uitzicht van de Duif next to the Van Eyck collection highlights a shared focus on space, structure and the human imagination: Constant in print and colour, Van Eyck in architecture and the way he lived with art in his home.
 📍 Uitzicht van de Duif, 1952, numbered ‘31’, signed by artists and author— from the Van Eyck Collection, 10-11 December 2025, Veilinggebouw De Zwaan, Amsterdam
[link in bio 🔗] Viewing Days: 4-7 December 2025
 📷 Jan Elburg and Constant, Het Uitzicht van de Duif, 1952, 34,4 x 27,2 cm, Portfolio with 9 woodcuts, no’s 1-4 | photos: Tom Haartsen

Also in the collection of:
Dordrechtsmuseum
Fondation Constant
Kunstmuseum Den Haag
Museum Cobra
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Stedelijk Museum
Van Abbe Museum

RuimteEnKleur SpaceAndColour CobraMuseum ModernArt Printmaking ArtistBook Amsterdam VeilinggebouwDeZwaan

24/11/2025

Processing the war through line and stone

In 1951, Constant confronted the dark psychological aftershocks of the Second World War.
Where his late-1940s drawings still revelled in playful, childlike fantasy, the early 1950s mark a decisive shift: violence, fear, and human vulnerability enter the work with new urgency.

The portfolio 8× la guerre is one of Constant’s clearest responses to this turning point.
Eight lithographs — raw, urgent, and stripped to essentials — explore the fractured state of postwar humanity. Bodies and weapons dissolve into trembling marks; the war is present not as narrative, but as trauma etched into the nervous surface of the stone.

Aldo van Eyck understood this transformation instantly.
As the architect who welcomed Constant, Appel, and Corneille into his Amsterdam home, Aldo was more than a supporter — he was their intellectual sparring partner. The COBRA artists found in him a mind that shared their belief in creativity, intuition, and the rebuilding of culture after devastation. It is no coincidence that Constant dedicated one of the earliest copies of this portfolio specifically to Aldo and Hannie.

Here, art and architecture meet on common ground: the search for renewal after destruction.

📍 8× la guerre, 1951, numbered ‘1’ and dedicated “exemplaire pour Aldo et Hanny Constant” on a label inside the portfolio— from the Van Eyck Collection, 10-11 December 2025, Veilinggebouw De Zwaan, Amsterdam [link in bio 🔗] Viewing Days: 4-7 December 2025 
📷 Constant, 8× la guerre, 1951, portfolio with eight lithographs, each signed ‘Constant’ verso, number 27, sheet 40 × 28 cm, published by the artist, Amsterdam, edition of 50, Collection Fondation Constant | photo: Tom Haartsen

Also in the collection:
Aldo and Hannie van Eyck Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, NL Kunstmuseum Den Haag, NL

21/11/2025

Four Portfolios on Auction

We’re pleased to share that four portfolios—Pour Jorn, Cobra, 30 Jaar Piet Clement and Stillevens—are now included in the upcoming auction at Bubb Kuypers Veilingen. Each contains a single work by Constant Anton Nieuwenhuys alongside contributions from a range of other notable artists.

Key facts:
• Pour Jorn (Silkeborg, 1976) comprises 14 colour lithographs by 14 artists (including Constant) and was printed in just 120 copies (of which only 20 were Roman-numbered).
• Cobra (Silkeborg, Galerie Moderne, 1988) includes 5 colour lithographs by Constant, Egill Jacobsen, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Pierre Alechinsky and Corneille; edition: 185 numbered copies (35 Roman). Provenance: the estate of Constant.
• 30 Jaar Piet Clement (Amsterdam, 1988) presents 22 prints by 22 artists including Constant, and is one of 85 numbered copies (35 Roman).
• Stillevens (Uitgeverij Polychrome, 1982) includes 10 colour lithographs by artists such as Pat Andrea, Marlene Dumas, Jeroen Henneman and Constant; edition: 75 numbered copies (15 Roman).

These portfolios offer more than single-artist editions—they reflect collaborative publishing, experimental formats, and the networks of post-war European art. If you’re a collector or simply interested in how artists worked together across movements, these editions are worth a look.

For online catalogue, find link in bio 🔗

Nieuwenhuys

Adres

Utrecht

Website

http://www.stichtingconstant.nl/, https://constant101.nl/

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