Jules de Goede was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on 20 May 1937. He lived and studied in the Netherlands and Australia before immigrating to London, England to pursue an artistic career. De Goede soon established himself as an abstract painter, sculptor and lecturer,
Abstract painter, sculptor and lecturer in fine art Jules de Goede was born as the eldest of seven children in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on 20 May 1937. His mother was a teacher of German heritage with an interest in the arts, and his father was a part French and part Dutch carpenter and businessman. When their father was posted to the army in 1939, the family moved to the Dutch village of Wijchen, leaving when the Nazis occupied the Netherlands. By the age of 14, de Goede had obtained a diploma in decorative art from Nijmegen Technical College. Although he immediately secured a place at the Arnhem Academy of Fine Arts, he was too young to start. However, he continued to work as a silkscreen printer. Once he reached the age of 16, he enrolled in the academy (1953–55) and subsequently took a one-year programme at Eindhoven School of Art (1955–56), while maintaining his studies and a position at a packaging design agency. By the time he was 19, his mother had died after a long illness, and the family immigrated to Sydney, Australia. De Goede joined them in 1956, thus avoiding being drafted into the Dutch Army. In Australia, he continued his academic and professional pursuits, attending several art institutions, including the Julian Ashton Art School, Desiderius Orban School of Art, and the Canberra School of Art (now part of the Australian National University), where he studied from 1959 to 1960. He also worked at the Australian News and Information Bureau and the National Capital Development Commission in Canberra.
Having established himself as an artist in Australia, de Goede immigrated to London, England, at the age of 28 in 1965 to further his career as an abstract artist. Here, he developed his unique ‘black hole’ idea: he crafted paintings using hollow tubes, enabling him to paint beneath the canvas's surface. Located in St Katharine Docks, close to the City of London, his first studio was managed by fellow artists, Bridget Riley and Peter Sedgley. Later, he established his second loft studio in Stephany Green, east London, in a building that once served as a Jewish school. De Goede was among the pioneering artists in England to champion open-studio events, welcoming the public into his creative space. His art dealer in London was Angus Broadbent, in whose eponymous gallery he regularly exhibited, in addition to his numerous exhibitions in London, including group shows at the Serpentine and Whitechapel Gallery (1979). Apart from several early exhibitions in Australia and one in Ireland, de Goede rarely exhibited abroad. In 1972, he began an academic career when he joined the teaching faculty of Hornsey College of Art in north London (now a division of Middlesex University), retiring as a Senior Lecturer in 2003. In 1996, de Goede was elected a member of the exhibiting platform, The London Group, formed in 1913 by merging the Camden Town Group, Fitzroy Street Group and other artists to challenge the conservative Royal Academy of Arts. The group’s centenary was celebrated in 2013–14 by the exhibition Uproar: The First 50 Years of The London Group curated by Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, particularly emphasising the contributions of women and émigré artists. In 1999, de Goede was also one of the founding members of A World to Win (an international revolutionary group opposing global capitalism in politics and economy).
De Goede, known for his precise geometric art, helped to introduced French purism and rigorous abstraction to avant-garde British art. These methods were reminiscent of those championed by the Circle Art Group and Systems Art but also echoed the reduction of form as practiced by the Soviet Constructivists. Inspired by the work of the Dutch de Stijl movement, de Goede explored the spatial dynamics of pure form in pictorial art, using innovative elements such as insertions and elliptical cavities to create real physical depth, visual paradoxes and illusions. His oeuvre consists of a minimalist palette of black, white, and grey, and ranges from large abstract canvases to prints, drawings, and sculptures. His paintings have often been compared to Dan Flavin’s minimalist sculptures. Of his practice, de Goede stated: ‘Abstraction should bring forth another kind of reality. I try to show what is invisible. I try to create happiness out of unsatisfactory situations. To make the impossible seem possible. I try to create order out of chaos. I try to bring conclusions rather than just ask questions.’ (Fenwick, 2007).
Jules de Goede died from cancer in London, England on 19 September 2007. His work is housed in several UK public collections, including the Arts Council Collection; Bristol Museum & Art; Contemporary Art Society, London; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne; and, the Leicestershire Education Committee, Leicester, as well as public and private collections abroad. An Abbey Award for artists to the British School at Rome was established in Jules de Goede's name in his memory.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Jules de Goede]
Publications related to [Jules de Goede] in the Ben Uri Library