Aldo Bakker
Aldo Bakker (1971-) was born in the Netherlands, the only child of avant-garde jewelry designers Emmy van Leersum and Gijs Bakker, co- founder of Droog Design. He rejected a formal arts training and gathered experience through craftsmanship, later going on to teach at the Eindhoven Design Academy. As an autodidact he carefully studied the oeuvres of some of the most idiosyncratic artists of the modern age, ranging from composer Luigi Nono and painter Giorgio Morandi to writer J.M. Coetzee and architect Carlo Scarpa. With these masters, Bakker shares a fundamental interest for the language of their favored medium. In fact, the introverted nature of his works, their elegant curves and facets, the depth of their surfaces and their flawless execution all contribute to the sensation that these artifacts tell their own stories in their own language.
Many of Aldo Bakker’s works are unique pieces. Several are produced in small editions. Next to his independent studio production Bakker has also created commissioned works for companies like Georg Jensen, Karakter, Puiforcat, Sèvres and Swarovski. His work has been acquired by museums like Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam), MoMa (NY), Cooper Hewitt (NY), mudac (Lausanne), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Centre Pompidou (Paris), Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Victoria & Albert Museum (London). In 2016 and 2017 a major overview of his work was presented in the exhibition Pause (CID Grand Hornu, mudac Lausanne). Aldo Bakker received the Wallpaper Award 2011, First Prize at DDA 2009, First Prize at Bornholm Glass 2008 and Wallpaper Award for Best Spirit Lifters 2023.
