An Dekker

An Dekker (1931 – September 2012) was a Dutch sculptor, graphic designer, publisher and feminist. Her abstract works of sculpture heavily featured the dynamics of war, peace, and human relationships.

Biography Dekker was born in the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1931. Her family was involved with the Dutch communist community, and as such fled the country when the Netherlands was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940. Interested in sculpture from a young age, Dekker was educated at the Dutch Academy of Fine Arts, where she studied in the 1950s. She then moved to Paris to further her art career; while in France, she worked in the studio of prominent sculptor Ossip Zadkine. She held her first exhibition in Nîmes in 1953.

In 1957, Dekker moved with her husband (a food chemist) to Nigeria; she would live and work there until 1971, and the nation's unique artistic tradition impacted Dekker's perception of art. While in Nigeria, her husband was killed in an accident. Dekker remarried, but this marriage ended in a separation.