Over a period of 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 the focus.
A few years ago, at the insistence of Rob Otten (brother and brother-in-law), we started a systematic inventory to make the collection accessible. Website-design and the input of information have both technically and creatively placed high demands on him. In the year 2023, the collection had more than 100,000 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 (See Biography of the collectors).
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 26 important painters, draftsmen and graphic artists from our collection. They are provided with a (self) portrait, information about their family backgrounds and education, how they came into contact with art, their sources of inspiration and four or five of their works. The aim was to give them a face as a person and to offer a deeper perspective for the experience of their artistic products (See Artists).
Our sculptures are housed in a separate website with currently a selection of 37 sculptors and ceramists. The information about the artists is variable, as is the number of their works. Most sculptures are shown in a 360 degree perspective (See www.turning-naive.nl).
The collection of Russian and Coptic icons is housed in a separate website (www.ottenicons.nl)
We wish you a lot of reading and viewing pleasure,
Alina, Rob and Willem Otten.