Reijer Stolk

Reijer Stolk (1896 – 1945) was born in Ngunut, Java, to a Javanese mother and Dutch father. Moving to the Netherlands as a child, he carried a dual heritage that set him apart in Europe’s art circles. Trained in Haarlem, he became a gifted print-maker whose woodcuts blended modernist form with motifs drawn from Javanese batik and West African textiles he studied on commission.

Stolk’s work spoke quietly but clearly against the rigid nationalism of the 1930s. While never formally banned, his progressive graphics and mixed-race background limited his exhibition opportunities under rising fascism. Wartime hardship cut his life short during the Dutch “Hunger Winter” of 1944–45, leaving many projects unrealised.

Learn more about the quiet resistance of Reijer Stolk