Arts/artists/koningtheo.html
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Freotopia > arts > artists > Theo Koning (1950-2022)
Theo Koning
Art Gallery of WA obit (Facebook):
He was one of the very kindest, gentlest and most humble of humans, qualities that were so beautifully present in his lifetime’s work.
His practice playfully (and humorously) explored the strange and tremulous status of the art object considered outside the global art ‘centres’, and against what, in 1984, he called ‘Biennale Art’.
Committed to honouring the role of the imagination in our everyday journey through life, he was an endlessly inventive choreographer and poet of the material world, giving new voice and spirit to the ideas, objects, and ways of living that define WA culture in its broadest sense.
Theodorus Jacobus Koning's father and mother are remembered on the Welcome Walls at the Maritime Museum, panel 468, as Cornelis Franciscus and Christine Alexandra Koning. They arrived on the Sibajak from Rotterdam in 1953, possibly 26 November. With them were two sons, Theo and Johannus Hendrikus. Another son is Franc., which is probably short for Cornelis's second name Franciscus. They lived in Claremont; Corn was employed as a gardener and a bricklayer, and he also had a milk round.
It may be a coincidence, but given Theo's artistic flair, it's worth noting that there was Cornelis Coning (1601-1671) who was an engraver, and a mayor of Haarlem. His portrait was painted by Frans Hals in 1630.
References and Links
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This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 18 March, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/arts/artists/koningtheo.html (it was last updated on 13 October, 2023). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.