Michel de Klerk - Architect and Artist of the Amsterdam School, 1884-1923

"Michel De Klerk, who died young, was the leader of the Amsterdam School, the expressionist movement in Dutch architecture of the second and third decades of this century. In two essays and an extensive catalogue Sigrid Johannisse and Vladimir Stissi have analyzed De Klerk's designs and shed light on their genesis. In addition, they place De Klerk and his work in the context of the Amsterdam architecture of the first decades of the century, as well as the national and international one. Furthermore, they demonstrate De Klerk's contribution to the development of the task of public housing in the urgban space, with the famous blocks on the Spaarndammerplantsoen in Amsterdam as high point. In an introduction, Manfred Bock describes the complicated art historical reception of De Klerk's work and the interest in one of the most extraordinary Dutch architects of the twentieth century."