(1882-1945) Nationality: Dutch Activity: Painter and engraver Werkman first started a career as a journalist and became a printer in Groningen.
He only began to paint at 35 using a technique similar to monotype engraving. Around 1923 he produced large leaves of paper with printing letters and ornaments and then used elements from posters, pieces of wood and abstract signs more freely.
An exhibition of his graphical compositions was shown in Paris in 1927. At the same time he printed the Next Call Dada magazine and in his compositions one can find an echo of Dadaism and in particular a similarity with Kurt Schwitters and El Lissitzky.
His major works were compositions with x signs and musical elements from Stravinskys symphonies. Werkman took part in the exhibition Circle and Square organised by Michel Seuphor in 1930 and evolve towards Expressionism after 1938 through he still used typographic resources in figures with neat outlines but with forms softened with the use of an inking roller.
Werkman, who used to call his works Impressions, was interested in expressing movement with sliding effects of the printing plate as in the Revolving Door of 1941.
Werkman was arrested and shot by the Nazis in Groningen on April 10th 1945 less than three weeks before World War Two ended.
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