Joop Sanders, last of the original Abstract Expressionists

Here’s a family puzzle: How do you showcase your grandfather’s career in honor of his passing two years ago, a career that spans more than five decades?

For co-curator and granddaughter Isca Greenfield-Sanders, a retrospective now on display in Manhattan is a chance for the world to brush up on “Joop Sanders: The Last Abstract Expressionist.” The exhibit at the Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation runs until July 19.

“We could’ve done this show with 15 entirely different paintings,” said Greenfield-Sanders. “But we had favorites and we had must-haves.

“Abstract Expressionism is the first movement tracthat is homegrown in the United States that is an international art movement,” she said. “You look at a lot of the geometric work, it’s quite figurative. It’s very human. It teaches you about how you are holding yourself in space and how you are looking at it on the wall.”

Joop Sanders emigrated from Amsterdam to the U.S. at age 17. He was among the youngest to take part in the landmark 9th Street Show in 1951, sharing the same billing with more familiar names like Willem and Elaine de Kooning, who would become lifelong friends. Elaine and Joop even posed for each other back when they couldn’t afford models.

“He was always in there and always making great work,” said Greenfield-Sanders. “I think often about what it must have been like keeping up with these guys who had been painting for quite a while already, and holding his own.”

But during that scene’s formative years in the mid- to late-1950s, Sanders and his new family left for his native Holland, exhibiting all over Europe, before coming back to New York. It was when Abstract Expressionism was hot. 

“A handful of the Ab Ex painters made money, and the truth is no one else did,” said Greenfield-Sanders. “He’s still living his life as a human being, and he has a young family and his parents want to know their grandchildren. His family was very important to him.”

And important for Greenfield-Sanders, who learned how to paint from Grandpa Joop at eight years old. The exhibit is part of a grieving process to honor the artist who died in 2023.

Of Joop Sanders’ “Dream of the Red Chamber,” I asked, “Can you imagine not having this in your life?”

“No,” Greenfield-Sanders replied. “I always think of it as the red painting, but there are so many other colors. As a painter, I see some of his moves. They’re so much movement – it’s a dance.”

Joop Sanders died just short of his 102nd birthday. “I was born on his 57th birthday, and he and I shared a birthday for the next 44 years,” Greenfield-Sanders said.

His loss from the family has been lifted by being able to bring to light all of his paintings and share them with other people.

“It’s almost a reintroduction for the world,” I said.

“I know. I can’t wait!” she laughed.

       
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Story produced by Young Kim. Editor: Chad Cardin. 

     
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