Tjerk Zijlstra – a brief biography and accountability
Tjerk Zijlstra was born in 1947 in Koog aan de Zaan. From 1966 to 1971
he went to the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and graduated as a graphic
designer and painter. The painting lessons that he got there were given
by teachers including Melle and Herman Gordijn. Besides his work as a graphic
designer, and later as a project manager in ICT, he has always painted.
In 2007 he stopped working in ICT, to focus entirely on painting and graphic
design.

As a painter Tjerk can be best described as a surrealist. He is an artist
who loves a bright colouring and prefers to paint with oils. In his paintings
he is inspired by chess. Over the years chess has become more than just
a game for him. It's not just a sport that is practiced both by professionals
and amateurs, but it also symbolizes mankind itself. And that gives it a
special fascination. It was a revelation to see that both in chess as in
the Zen philosophy there is the same core. This theme he has used previously
in the "Prenten van de os" ("Prints of the ox"), a ten-part
series of paintings based on the eponymous Zen story. The goal is to finally
discover your true self. For him this is also what is chess about.
The paintings are characterized by a symbolic or a realistic depiction
of chess positions, chess problems and surprising chess anecdotes. The following
symbolism of chess Tjerk uses in his paintings:
The chessboard consists of 64 squares of alternating black and white and
it is the floor of the "House of Mysteries." Both on the board
and in the spiritual world the pieces move according to a fixed law. Over
centuries there rages the struggle between good and evil, light and dark,
black and white. Each piece has its own meaning: the king in the game symbolizes
the spirit, the queen symbolizes the mind, the rook symbolizes the physical
body, the knight symbolizes the force, the bishop symbolizes the feeling
and the pawns symbolize the senses. The white pieces symbolize the higher
self and its supporters, the black pieces the lower self, the ego, and its
followers. Chess thus shows us the eternal struggle of mankind with every
part of his complex nature against the downside of it.
There follow some paintings by Tjerk, with his descriptions. Also visit
his website www.tjerkzijlstra.nl.

"A fait accompli", 80x80 cm oil on
canvas; 2014
The Lewis Chessmen set the stage for a smothered mate. The Lewis Chessmen
is a group of 93 chess pieces from the 12th century, carved in ivory from
walrus and whale teeth, which were found in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis in
the Hebrides, Scotland. The meaning of the various pieces was difficult
to unravel and so there are different interpretations. Tjerk uses replicas
of the Lewis Chessmen for his paintings. The originals are in the British
Museum in London, where the rook is depicted as a warrior, called the watchman.
Tjerk's grandson Quinn stood model for the cherub that sends the queen
from the spiritual world.
The position depicted in the painting is from the following:

The continuation is 1.Kh1 Nf2+ 2.Kg1 Nh3+ 3.Kh1 Qg1+ 4.Rxg1 Nf2
smothered mate!

"From mind to spirit through the 4th Dimension",
70x100 cm oil; 2014
From an early age my father explained me how to look from the first dimension
to the second, and then to the third dimension, and, using reasoning, to
the fourth dimension. It then struck me enormously, and still does. The
human eye can’t see the fourth dimension yet, just like the spiritual
world. Perhaps the fourth dimension is equal to the spiritual world. The
eyes of birds of prey, in this case the sparrowhawk, see a lot more than
we do, but what they exactly see we do not know. The metamorphosis of the
mind to the spirit goes from the queen to the king. The tesseract is made
up of eight three-dimensionel cubes painted in two dimensions, which makes
it complicated and difficult to fathom. The solution of seeing in the fourth
dimension will be in our soul. The butterfly, pseudophilotes baton, as a
symbol of the soul is the connection between the physical world and the
spiritual world, here it is the fourth dimension. The sparrowhawk sees that.

"The Power of Thought", 60x90 cm
oil on canvas; 2014
The nuthatch on the left edge of the canvas tries to fathom the position.
The butterfly, cethosia hypsea, comes out of its shell and gives assistance
to the nuthatch. As in "The fait accompli" I made use of the Lewis
chess set to shape the problem. A good example of the power and scope of
the queen. In chess symbolism the queen stands for the mind and the king
stands for the spirit. The position of the pieces represent the following
problem:

White to move mates in four moves! A brilliant
problem.
In a higher sense this queen oversees all corners of the world (= the chessboard,
here depicted as water, as in the collection of the Lewis Chessmen the board
is missing) and therefore can easily find the solution: 1.Qh1
(threatens 2.Qa8 mate) 1...Rf3 (or 1…Bxc4 2.Qa8+
Ba6 3.bxa3 c6 4.Qd8 mate) 2.Qh8! (White would be too late
after 2.Qxf3 Bxc4) 2...Bxc4 (the only defense) and now:
3.b4+ axb3 4.Qa1 mate. The most improbable mating move
in this diagram.

"The open book of Reti", 60x46 cm
oil on panel; 2014
The beautiful chess studies of grandmaster Réti inspires me very
much. This is a study from 1923 and it has a very unexpected course, the
first move is in fact rook to e8! From a great height the hen harrier looks
down on the study and assess its merits. Krommeniedijk, which where I have
lived in the past, has such a beautiful silhouette that I wanted to paint
it again, combined with a beautiful sky above the Klompenpad in Soest.
Richard Réti, Wiener Schachzeitung
(v), 1923

White to play and win! Solution: 1.Re8! h1Q [1...Kd1 2.Ne4]
2.Ne4+! Kc2 3.Rc8+ Kb1 4.Nd2+ Ka1 5.Nxb3+ Kb1 6.Nd2+ Ka1 7.Rc2 and
mate to follow.

"The Golden Sun", 38x68 cm oil on
panel; 2015
An experiment with gold paint, also inspired by a wonderful study of Réti.
The Lewis Chessmen are correctly set up to represent the chess problem.
In the golden sun there is an angel (a praying buzzard), which, from the
spiritual world of high altitude, overlooks the spectacle and knows what
is the winning move. The title was suggested to me by my grandsons Tion
and Quinn, who insisted that the painting was to be called so. The Lewis
Chessmen represent the following study:
Richard Réti, Bohemia 1923

White to play and win. Solution: 1.Rc3 b2 2.Bc1 b1Q (pawn
takes Bc1 or b1N is also a win for White) 3.Ra3#.

"The arrival of the Imperial Eagle",
50 x 100 cm oil on canvas; 2015
A wonderful composition, presented during the chess training of Ronald
Staal of S.V. Leusden, inspired me to make this painting. Chess technically
it is related to earlier themes from the schaakkuriosa series (see the book
"Schaakkuriosa in kleur”). The imperial eagle plays with black
and threatens to play pawn h1, with a promotion to queen, and achieves a
win for Black. The kingfisher, a symbol of the goddess Alkyone, plays with
white and, despite the threat, stays cool and plays, thanks to its insight
into the spiritual world, almost casually the white king to the field h1,
which blocks the black pawn. And then she can triumph, thanks to the remarkable
position of the white knight. The imperial eagle is flying disappointed
between the rooks, to enter the wide world on its way to other destinations.
I used the tower of 'Doonagore Castle' in Ireland as a model for
the rooks. This is the position:
Richard Réti, Hastings and
St. Leonards Post 1922

White to play and win. Solution: 1.Nd4+ Kc5 (position
in the paining) 2.Kh1!! and e.g. 1...Bf4 2.Ne6+ Kb5 3.NxBf4
wins. Also on 1...Bg5 Bd2/Bc1/Bf8 follows Ne6+; or 1...KxNd4 2.a6 and White
promotes to queen; or 1...Be3 2 fxBe3 etc.

Six of Tjerk Zijlstra's paintings have
a nice place in the main playing room in Hoogeveen

 |
The exhibition of paintings in Hoogeveen was organised by Margreet
Wevers, owner of a small company in The Netherlands called Schaakkunst
(Chess art). Margreet works together with more than ten Dutch artists
who all make artworks inspired by chess.
Margreet herself makes (personalised) products for chess players
from clubs, schools, etc. They are used, for example, as prizes,
gifts, give aways and personal use. She uses many materials like
paper, glass, metal, plastic, fabric and wood. With several printers
(also 3D), heat press machines, cutters and so on, she can use a
huge amount of techniques. |

The most sold products by Schaakkunst are the scorebooks with personalised
design and handy ring binder.
The newest and also popular product is the "chess cookie cutter set".
Websites: www.schaakkunst.nl
and www.chess-art.eu (webshop). Email:
info@schaakkunst.nl
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