Glastra, Siebe Wiemer
Education: handicraft, carpentry.
Profession/occupation:numerous jobs, like carpenter, taxi driver, coffin maker, and was employed in a chewing-gum factory.
Art form/medium: painting in oils; embroidering.
Start artwork: 1959, after religious vision and mission to start painting.
Relevant info: believed he had paranormal powers, and became a psychometer and mesmerizer. Religion was his driving force.
(Solo-) exhibitions: 1963 & 1965, Galerie 20, Arnhem and Amsterdam.
References: Reith, Liesbeth; Siebe Wiemer Glastra. Koning-schilder der schilders, in: Verborgen werelden, Tielt 2007, pp. 138-141. / Reith, Liesbeth; Siebe Wiemer Glastra. King-painter of painters, in: Hidden Worlds, Tielt 2007, pp. XLI-XLIV. / Lenders, Tom; Siebe Wiemer Glastra, in: INSITA 2004, catalogue Bratislava 2004, pp. 84-86.
Siebe Wiemer Glastra was an obsessive artist. Glastra had numerous jobs: carpenter, taxi driver, coffin maker, and finally, he was employed in a chewing-gum factory. In 1958 he decided that he had paranormal powers, and became a psychometer and mesmerizer. He also took up painting in 1959. Glastra came to believe that he was an intermediary between the everyday world and a higher plane, and that higher powers controlled his actions. Rembrandt, the Virgin Mary and others “entered his body and freely led his hand”. His last wife complained about the smell of oil paint, so he took to embroidering his pictures. God had opened his eyes, Glastra wrote, and not surprisingly, all his subjects are biblical in character.
Siebe Wiemer Glastra1910 Amsterdam, The Netherlands - 1973 Amsterdam, The Netherlands
