Basic Information

Name: José Maria Capricorne, December 25, 1932
Place of birth: Curaçao
Based in: The Netherlands
Discipline: Visual art, painting, drawing, graphic design, and ceramic painting

EDUCATION

1967 — Training as an urban-planning draughtsman
1958 — Graphic Design, Amsterdam School of Graphic Arts, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1954–1956 — Drawing course, School of Advertising and Drawing, Amsterdam, Netherlands

BIOGRAPHY

José Maria Capricorne is a Curaçaoan visual artist and designer. He attended the technical school established by the Shell oil company in Curaçao and worked as a ceramic painter at the First Curaçao Pottery Factory. After working in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1950s, he moved to the Netherlands in 1954. Following military service, he worked as an advertising designer and trained as an urban-planning draughtsman, including a practical year with the Municipal Planning Department in Amersfoort. Inspired by the CoBrA movement, he increasingly developed independent artistic practice. In 1968, he returned to Curaçao and worked for the Public Works Department. He later founded Akademia di Arte, the Curaçao Academy of Fine Arts, together with Eddy Ayubi, and served as its director from 1971 to 1988. Since the end of the 1980s, he had developed an extensive body of work.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

Solo Exhibitions since 2000

2023 — Stedelijk Museum Breda, Breda, Netherlands
2022 — Council of State, Netherlands
2015 — Gallery Alma Blou, Curaçao
2013 — Documentary presentation and exhibition, Gallery Alma Blou, Curaçao
2011 — Nijmegen, Netherlands
2009 — Gallery Alma Blou, Curaçao
2006 — Galerie Marieke van den Broek, Netherlands
2005 — Gallery Berlin Am Meer, Berlin, Germany
2004 — Kas di Alma Blou, Curaçao
2003 — Galerie Marieke van den Broek, Oosterbeek, Netherlands
2002 — Kas di Alma Blou, Curaçao; Galerie de Vijf Eijken, Arnhem, Netherlands
1999 — Kas di Alma Blou, Curaçao

Group Exhibitions since 2000

2007 — Gallery Artitude, Nijmegen, Netherlands
2005 — Galerie Stills, Nijmegen, Netherlands

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2001 — Farewell Poems for Violette. Stichting Libri Antilliani.
1989 — Colors of Life: Antillean Animals by Capricorne – Bida na koló: bestianan di Capricorne. De Walburg Pers.
1981 — Bida na koló – Colors of Life. With Carel de Haseth. In de Knipscheer.
1975 — Wiegenlied voor de teleurgestelden. With Carel de Haseth. Flamboyant.
1972 — Dos en uno: Poetic Work. With Alex Goeloe.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS ABOUT THE ARTIST

2019 — Marianne de Tolentino, Susan Wiczak, and Monique Herksen. Three Caribbean Artists. ISBN 978-94-6022-491-1.
2005 — Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger. La Belle Caraïbe: The Art of José Maria Capricorne. Wiss. Verl. Berlin. ISBN 3865730582.
1999 — J. J. Oversteegen. Re-Creations: The World of José Maria Capricorne. ICS Nederland/Curaçao. ISBN 9073854296.
1988 — José Maria Capricorne, Docco Engels, and Jacqueline Römer-de Vresse. José Maria Capricorne: Paintings and Drawings 1962–1988. Curaçao Museum Foundation.

AWARDS

1988 — Lustrum Prize, Curaçao Museum
1985 — Cola Debrot Prize

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Mural at the University of Curaçao
Mural at the Public Library of Curaçao