Rebel with a Cause. A conversation
on the art of living

What drives successful people? What distinguishes them? What enables them to excel and make a difference? In search of answers to these questions, Erik van Gend talks to people who bring out the full potential of themselves. A unique and fascinating series of interviews in which Erik addresses a different topic or theme each time.

In this issue, he talks with Jan des Bouvrie, the most successful designer in the Netherlands. Jan achieved many successes at a young age by following his own vision and going against the grain. Now 73 years old, Jan has not lost his passion and rebellion. I meet Jan in his office, in the beautiful Arsenal. He had set aside an hour in his busy schedule for this conversation. What follows is a wonderful, 3-hour long, conversation about energy, creativity, art, entrepreneurship, family and above all the necessary anecdotes with lots of humor.

What parts of your childhood had a major influence on your subsequent life? What shaped you?

As you get older you start thinking more and more about that and start looking for where things come from. Growing up over my parents’ business and my dyslexia had a big impact on me. I looked for other expressions as a child because of that. I painted my room white, the radio white, I built a train track through the wall and much more. Only recently have I discovered that the need for white originated in my first nursery where I had no daylight. I was just looking for space and light.

You describe a creative and free spirit, but it was also the time of reconstruction and simplicity?

What bothered me most was that my parents were in the business day and night, working so hard and getting nothing out of it. To give you an example; one time I went with my father to the liquor store to get a bottle of gin for Fl. 5. We were walking back and playing tug-of-war, whereupon he dropped the bottle from his hands. I remember the look in his eyes so well. He had no money to buy a new bottle. That was one of the three defining moments in my life. I decided then and there: this will never happen to me.

Then how did you end up at the Rietveld Academy?

I didn’t have the right prior education, but on the advice of friends of my parents, I went for an interview at the Rietveld Academy anyway. I brought a glass maquette I had made earlier and it seemed to be well liked. Then I sat in front of the mailbox for 3 days waiting for the letter from the Academy. I had been accepted! That was the second moment that was decisive for me.

I had one lesson at the Academy from Gerrit Rietveld himself. The assignment was to draw a children’s room, which was supposed to take a month. Then one month I thought, “That’s crazy!” I made a scribble and put it on the table with him. He looked at it and said:

“Gosh how good that looks, Jan. Really good. But now if you leave everything out, it will be a lot better! The best lesson I’ve ever had.”

After the Rietveld Academy, I was in my parents’ business, which was my best learning experience. I was only 18 and told my mother that we had to do things completely differently. We then put everything on sale. My father was furious! Then I made a window display with a big round travertine table, a bowl with roses on it and with six Charles Eams armchairs around it. My father then said, “We’ll never sell this anyway!” Those chairs cost even then Fl. 1,600 each. I said, “Dad, this gives allure and it makes people think.” I went down that same evening, we had shopping night and then my father had put a roll of linoleum between them. 2 meters wide ƒ 21,-. My whole shop window fucked up, haha. The next day the director of IBM comes in and he says: “I think this is so beautiful, I want all of this”. Then I was then commissioned to decorate IBM’s entire office. Imagine what a start!

What was the third defining moment in your life?

That was the visit of Mr. Oberman, from the Gelderland company. He was standing in front of my store. I asked him in, but he refused because I no longer sold Gelderland furniture. I told him I didn’t because I thought the quality was fantastic, but the styling was just too far behind. Well, he said, “If you have such a big mouth then, design something.” Out of that came the Cube sofa and the swivel armchair with those round armrests. Those became a big success, that was the third moment.

What was your incentive to go against the existing norm in this way?

No, it was much simpler. When I went to people’s houses to deliver couches, I would see scrap walls, clean masonry on the wall, carpet with dots in it because of stains, not to be seen.

“And I thought, how do I get all that out of the house, especially that oak? Well that went through the fireplace!”

Then I started painting the clean masonry white with those people. Really together, with a pot of paint. Plastering is much nicer, of course, but there was no money for that. Then those people came into their rooms the next day and they thought ‘wow’ what a space. I started very small, but it worked for everyone.

Has it also strengthened you to choose your own direction, to not conform?

I actually never thought about it that much. I just don’t conform, I’ve always done that automatically. We had a group of creative people after the war with Benno Premsela, Paul Huf, Frank Govers, Dick Holthuis. That was a group, we went to dinner together every Thursday night. And that inspired me to choose my own direction.

What fascinates me is that you move easily in friendships and relationships. While on the other hand you are also an autonomous and rebellious thinker?

That’s true. I’ll give you an open answer, something I wouldn’t actually say very easily. Look, you only achieve something if you are nice. I never argue either; being nice accomplishes so much more. What has been given to me, that energy, I want to convey. I get so happy when I see the students at my ROC, who just like me when I entered the Rietveld Academy, start their lives there. Where they learn to draw only by hand in the first year.

“They shouldn’t use that pussy computer, it gives no creativity.”

Do you see yourself more as a businessman or a true professional idiot?

Completely combined. You can’t have one without the other either. Take for example Gerrit Rietveld, Le Corbusier, Toon Hermans or Wim Sonneveld they also have this combination. All successful people have this in common I think.

“I want to work 50 percent hard and enjoy 50 percent hard.”

It strikes me that you are actually always working?

Yes, that’s right. When I’m not working I’m very unhappy. For example, I always combine my vacations with work. My vision of life is 50% hard work and 50% hard enjoyment. If I stopped working I would die immediately. My father died young; he had a stroke when he was 59 and then ended up in a wheelchair. At 65 he went into a coma. He had been in a coma for 10 days and in his coma he grabbed my hand and he hummed La Vie en Rose. He died after that, apparently he still wanted to give me something at that moment.

How do you view your own death? Are you afraid of it?

No, not at all. As a child I was afraid of it though, I would sit upright in bed to stay awake, because I was afraid of not getting up the next morning. Very strange, of course, but I was so attached to life so young. Now, on the contrary, I feel that I have done so much that my energy does go on.

Describe that “energy”?

I participated in the program “The Hidden Past.” I always thought I had a Jewish background, always that business-like, my grandfather also seemed to be Jewish. But there’s nothing about that anywhere. I loved him, such a wonderful man. As a little boy I would sit at the table with him. Then he would say:

“Jan, you have curls, women are going to fall for you. But remember three things: never sleep with customers, never sleep with staff and never go to whores. Well, maybe 1 time then.”

My grandfather’s father and all the way back to the year 1400, my family was in textiles. I thought, “Where did my father’s musicality come from anyway?” Then it turned out that my great-grandfather Reinders was an organist in 1700 who had written music for William V. Truly to give me goosebumps! Then it turns out that my great-grandfather is standing with a sign in the church in Naarden. During the program we go to the church and there is a soprano and an organist, who also married me and Monique, and they just play the music of my old great-grandfather. Surely none of this can be a coincidence anymore! Naarden, where I grew up, where my business is located and where my great-grandfather wrote his music in 1700. It’s very simple to me, this whole long story is just passing on energy.

Do you feel that your life is a collection of conscious choices or that it more or less worked out that way?

I think everyone who has achieved something has chosen from two options: the good side or the bad side. For believers, that’s God or the devil. Look for me it’s just energy, that to me is much more concrete. Why is there faith? To support people in their weaknesses, that’s why there are all these wars. That’s such a shame, actually everyone should believe in energy. It’s going too far for me to do anything about that, but I would love to. Just say, guys that’s it!

Is it also a sacred belief in yourself?

No, I just firmly believe that everything is endless and goes on endlessly. Like the universe, now they are doing research based on vibrations, discovering so much more, there is no end to it. We are born, we are given energy, good or bad. You do something with it, then you die and you pass that energy back to others. What I have put down, with the Jan des Bouvrie schools for example, that passes on to others and they in turn will pass it on. And then this special conversation comes to an end and as we say goodbye I silently think to myself, “Please let this rebellious life artist live to be at least 100 years old.”

Courtesy of Nicole des Bouvrie, Gooisch Blad.