Margarita Nicolaas

My Story

From a young age, I was deeply inspired to draw and dance, and profoundly impressed by music and films.

In the 1960s, I completed training in ballet and pantomime, and later, in the 1980s, Flamenco dance lessons. From 1969, I took classes at the Rijksacademie and was subsequently admitted to the BKR (Dutch Artists’ Association). Meanwhile, I developed my drawing and painting skills by working for years in friends’ studios, from live models, and at venues hosting music and dance performances.

Later, I came into contact with the tango, which moved me so deeply that I frequently sought out places where it was danced. The eroticism between dance couples dancing the tango, the atmosphere in a dance hall, the melancholic music, the movements of the dance—it inspired me to capture the tango dance on canvas, to express my feelings for the tango in my graphic work and drawings.

The history of the tango fascinates me so much: the old images, the singers, and the development of the styles from the past to the present. Years ago, I was invited to an exhibition in Antwerp in a beautiful old cinema that was used for dancing Tango. It was so overwhelming to see the dance couples, young and old, dancing the tango, each in their own way.

Experiencing through images is a continuous process for me, and this manifests itself in the creation of paintings, photography, and films.

Exhibitions