Over the past 40 years, my wife Alina Ludmila Otten-Owsiejczuk and I have built up a collection of more than 2,000 works of art with self-taught paintings, drawings, graphics and sculptures as focal points.
A few years ago, at the urging of Rob Otten (brother and brother-in-law), we started systematically making an inventory of the collection and making it accessible using Instagram and the Otten & Otten website that he built. The design and input of information have placed high demands on him, both technically and creatively. In the year 2022, the site had 40,000 virtual visitors.
Alina, Rob en Willem Otten. Amsterdam 1998.
This chapter contains information about our personal backgrounds, how we came into contact with art, how our passion for collecting arose and how we dealt with it.
Barbara Kruyt (Hengelo 1944). Portrait of Willem Otten 1995. Oil paint on canvas 50×40 cm.
Edgar Jansen. Portrait of Alina Ludmiły Otten 1985. Chalk drawing on paper 65×50 cm.
This chapter contains short biographies of 24 important painters, draftsmen and graphic artists from our collection. They are provided with a (self)portrait, information about family background and education, how they came into contact with art, their sources of inspiration and four or five of their works. The intention was to give them a face as a person and to offer a deeper perspective for the experience of their artistic products.
This chapter contains a selection of the sculptors and ceramists from our collection. The artist information is variable, as is the number of works shown. Some of the sculptures are shown in a 360 degree perspective.
We wish you a lot of reading and viewing pleasure,
Alina, Rob and Willem Otten.