What's a Hoogovens?
Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 10:29AM Last weekend we played around with a new toy - a GPS - and plugged in the addresses of a bunch of Goodwills and Value Villages far and wide. We ended up hitting Barrie, Orillia and Newmarket zigzagging all over the place. The haul at the end of the day was quite impressive; a nine-drawer teak dresser, a dining chair, two barstools, three pieces of artwork and a dozen records. How much did we splurge? Ummm, the princely sum of $50 on the lot.
One of the pieces of artwork, a signed and numbered print snagged for $5 in Barrie, really caught my eye (I love the industrial look of it). We brought it home, snapped off the water damaged frame and Googled the artist; Michael John Hunt. Well, la-di-da, we found him and sent off an e-mail asking if they could decipher the name of the piece and give us any background on it. A day or two later Rosemary Hunt e-mailed us back - "The etching was commissioned by the Hoogovens Steel Group which was a Dutch based steel manufacturer. The commission was placed during the 1980's through the Pieter Breughel Gallery in Amsterdam, with whom Michael had an association for 30 years since 1976. We are racking our brains to try and remember why the etching was commissioned - we think to celebrate something, but we can't remember what!" How cool.
Michael John Hunt, art, vintage in Art 
Reader Comments (3)
That's terrific! What fun. Will you post a photo of the 9-drawer teak dresser, too?
Eventually! It was such a steal - $10 - and we have the perfect spot for it. Currently I'm deciding whether to clean up the teak or have it re-finished in a colour.
Hi,
Hey thanks for the info. Keep writing buddy
Thanks,
Cygnus