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Reyn Dirksen: an icon of Dutch advertising art

"Lunapark" Poster by Reyn Dirksen, Netherlands 1950

We are very proud to have a few art prints by Dutch advertising artist Reyn Dirksen added to our collection. This is a brief history of an iconic Dutch artist!

Early life

Reyn Dirksen (Haarlem 1924 – Amsterdam 1999) studied at the Institute of Applied Arts Education, which is now the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Here he met his wife Loes Dirksen, who later became a well known fashion designer.

After the war, he earned his living designing stationery, logos and advertisements. He soon designed his first poster “Coffee and tea” for Albert Heijn.

Carreer

Since then, he has created dozens of posters for a wide range of products. Many large companies as well as the municipality of Amsterdam made use of his design talent. For Amsterdam, he made a lot of posters for events, of which the most famous ones include HISWA, Fashion week, KLM and Schiphol, Heineken, Bols, Verkade, Rizla, Holland-America and Dutch Railways, Red Cross, etc.

Awards

"Holland-Afrika Lijn" Poster by Reyn Dirksen, Netherlands 1955

His most sought-after fairground posters, such as the LUNAPARK, also date from that time and have become a real collector’s item. This includes the famous “All Colours tot he Mast” poster that was designed for the “Intra-European Cooperation for a Better Standard of Living Poster” by the George C. Marshall foundation. It was picked as the winner out of more then 10.000 designs from all over the world! The poster was seen as a visual metaphor of the poverty in Europe during and after the Second World War and the value of uniting the European countries, like a ship in raging water.

After this he won many more awards. In the seventies, with the rise of photography, Dirksen decided to stop working as a designer. He was inspired by American free painting and dedicated his last years to painting. He made colourful abstract paintings. Because he hated exhibiting in public spaces, his work has remained unknown to the general public. His second passion was designing and building tugboat models, which he

Fashion Week Poster by Reyn Dirksen, Netherlands 1950

had drawn so many times for his posters in the past.

After a serious cerebral infarction, he spent his last days in a home in Haarlem.  In 1999, Reyn Dirksen passed away.

Our collection

We are very proud to present our collection of Reyn Dirksen artworks. We have posters from Lunapark, Fashion Week, the Dutch railways and several shipping lines. They are all made in his eye-catching and most recognizable style. A fantastic opportunity to draw the attention in the decor with a unique piece of Dutch art history!

You can find our collection of Reyn Dirksen art prints by clicking here.