Spelende baby

Title: Spelende baby ('Playing baby'). Chalk drawing on hand-made paper, Hand-signed in pencil by Johan Dijkstra. Fully framed with passe-partout and glass, Johan Dijkstra was a member of the Groningse 'De Ploeg' group. Johan Dijkstra visited the three-year ‘Hogere Burgerschool’ (HBS) and took afternoon lessons at the Academie Minerva in 1915. In 1919 he received the bronze academy medal for his work. From 1919 to 1920 he studied at the ‘Rijksacademie’ in Amsterdam, where in 1920 he completed the ‘M.O. Tekenen’ (i.e. teaching certificate for drawing at high schools). Johan Dijkstra was one of the founders of De Ploeg, but could in the early years not be an active member due to his stay in Amsterdam. Back in Groningen, he made his living by making illustrations and advertising work. In April 1923 Dijkstra organized with Altink and Wiegers the first lustrum of De Ploeg at Blauwbörgje, a place just outside the city where many Ploeg members went to paint. From early 1926 to 1940 Dijkstra exhibited outside Groningen almost every year. He also had solo exhibitions in Groningen at Pictura, in Amsterdam and The Hague. Between 1928 and 1940 he no longer had formal positions at De Ploeg, but he did his best to expand the number of members. In his efforts to enlarge De Ploeg, he found an opponent in Werkman. Since 1930 he wrote reviews for the ‘Provinciale Groninger Courant’, which made him part of the establishment according to many members of De Ploeg.