Biography

José Maria Capricorne is born in 1932 on the island of Curaçao. From childhood he loves to paint and draw. He gets his inspiration from the impressions he acquires in the lively popular neighbourhood Otrabanda where he lives and his father owns a carpenter’s workshop. Later he moves to a see-side neighbourhood where his love for nature awakes. He starts developing his pictural language during his work as a painter in a ceramics workshop on the island of Curaçao (1951-1953) and in Brasil (1954-1955). In 1955 he heads to Amsterdam to study Graphic Arts. After finishing his study, he works as an advertising designer and painter. He returns to the island of Curaçao in 1968. There he is involved in the foundation of the Art Academy Curaçao. He will be director of this academy – with a couple of interrumptions- from 1970 til 1988. In 1985 he recieves the Culture Prize of the Dutch Antilles, the Cola Debrot-prize for his contribution to the culture and culture education of the island of Curaçao, followed in 1988 by the First Lustrum Prize of the Curaçao Museum. Since 1993 he lives in Nijmegen (The Netherlands) where he works on his art.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW0jbVHKAks&feature=player_detailpage for a short movie in which you can see José Maria Capricorne is working and telling about his vision on art. Made by Reporter Tanja Fraai and cameraman/editor Mike Ho-Sam-Sooi. Made in the beginning of 2012 in studio Capricorne, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Time: 6 minutes.