Walter Nobbe was born in 1941 in Malang (Indonesia). In 1950, his family moved to the Netherlands He studied at the Koninklijk Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (Royal Academy of Fine Arts) in The Hague, graduating in 1964. Together with Pat Andrea who graduated a year later, he rented a studio where he would relentlessly experiment and create when he was not teaching art (first in secondary education, later, from 1969 to 1973, at the Willem de Kooning Academie (formerly the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (Academy of Fine Arts) in Rotterdam).
His first exhibition was held in 1966, at Galerie 20 van Felix Valk in Arnhem. Nobbe was exhibited alongside his studio mate Pat Andrea, who became his lifelong friend in spite of the fact that their oeuvres and careers took different directions (in those early days, however, they were both strongly influenced by the work of teacher Co Westerik). The pair were co-founders, alongside Peter Blokhuis, of the ABN art group, which came to be known as the Nieuwe Haagse Realisten.
In 1971, after having received the Royal Grant for Painting, he made his first designs for sets and costumes for the Nederlands Dans Theater. From 1973 onwards, he began a long collaboration with the Dance Theatre, working first for Cliff Keuter, then Jiří Kylián and later for Nacho Duato. Outside the Netherlands, he worked frequently with Christopher Bruce for dance companies throughout the world, including the Rambert Dance Company (formerly Ballet Rambert), the English National Ballet (London Festival Ballet), the Cullberg Ballet, Gulbenkian and the Houston Ballet.
Technically, Nobbe looked to the past, in particular to the Italian Renaissance or the Flemish primitives, to better master his technique for painting on wood panel, which he favoured over more stretchable materials such as canvas and other textiles. Thematically, children held a special place in the artist’s repertoire. Partly inspired by visits to his brother who lived in a home for mentally handicapped children, their naivety and optimism represented a neutral prism through which to depict the world around them.
Nobbe passed away in 2005.
