The Search for Essence The studio in Boxmeer is a distant memory for the man who would eventually reshape the Dutch post-war landscape. Born in 1934, Gerard Verdijk begins his formal training in 1953 at De Vrije Academie voor de Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam. He does not stay long in the Netherlands. He moves through Antwerpen and Paris, absorbing the international currents of the 1950s. By 1957, he completes his education at De Vrije A…