Onno Boekhoudt

Bio

Onno Roelof Boekhoudt (1944-2002) was a Dutch visual artist, renowned as a jewellery designer and educator.

Boekhoudt received his training at the Vakschool Schoonhoven (1963-1966) and at the Vereinigte Goldschmiede Kunst und Werkschule in Pforzheim (1966-1968). 
In 1974, Boekhoudt co-founded the Bond van Oproerige Edelsmeden (League of Rebellious Goldsmiths) with Karel Niehorster, Françoise van den Bosch, Marion Herbst, and sculptor Berend Peter. BOE was established in response to changes within the jewellery world over the preceding years. BOE exhibited in venues such as London and produced the BOE-box in a limited edition of 100. Each wooden box, crafted by Berend Peter, contained compartments where each designer expressed their vision of the profession through text and objects.

Boekhoudt taught at several institutions, including the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (1975-1990) and the Royal College of Art in London (1990-2002). He encouraged his students to develop their own visual language. His work explored the properties and uses of various materials like copper, iron, lead, and zinc. To his students, he advised that they should work on their materials until they almost fell apart.

In 1996, Boekhoudt was awarded the Françoise van den Bosch Prize for his body of work.
His archive is preserved at the CODA Museum in Apeldoorn.

Statement

Onno Boekhoudt prefered to see himself as an artist involved with jewellery as a theme, rather than as a jewellery designer. Although his objects were created using traditional precious metal techniques, Boekhoudt’s jewellery reveals an affinity with sculpture. This relationship with the visual arts is not the result of his objects being miniature sculptures; it is more the way he explored and used the spatial qualities of the material in the creation of his own typical shapes.