Henk Trumpie


Henk Trumpie is a Dutch ceramist and sculptor.

Life and work

Born in The Hague, Trumpie studied at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, and took glaze lessons at the Porceleyne Fles pottery in Delft. Here he got involved in the production of ceramic works for other artists, such as Karel Appel.
In 1968 he and Jacques van Gaalen founded the ceramics studio Struktuur 68. Heeney recalled, that "the studio has applied itself to the manufacturing of large-scale ceramic sculpture in collaboration with many international artists. In 1968 they started working with the CoBrA group. Over the years they "completed around 1000 successful commissions in collaboration with more than 200 national and international artists."
In 1980 Trumpie started as lecturer at the Rietveld Academy, beside Jan van der Vaart, as successor of Emmy van Deventer, which became "an enormous stimulus for the creation of monumental ceramics at the Academy." Among his students were Anna Carlgren, Wietske van Leeuwen, and Lia van Rhijn.