Cor Klaasen (1926-1989)

Cor Klaasen was born in Amsterdam in 1926 and studied design at the Instituut voor Kunstnijverheids Onderwijs (IVKNO), now Rietveld Academie. He studied under Mart Stam, Wim Jaarsveld, Johan Niegeman and Piet Zimmerman, a number of the latter studied at the Bauhaus. After graduation he taught typesetting and layout at IVKNO (1945-1952).

After working at IVKNO, Cor moved to Switzerland to work as an illustrator with a large co-operative organisation and attended Donald Brun's design course at the Kunstgewerbeschule Basel.

It was Cor's intention to remain in Switzerland and pursue his design career there but visa restrictions made this difficult and in 1956 he moved to Ireland to work for O’Kennedy Brindley Advertising. He settled in Dublin and became an Irish citizen in 1962.  

Cor’s main career was in advertising and he worked for many of the leading Irish agencies. He had a healthy freelance practice, designing at least 170 book covers and 35 LP sleeves between 1958 and 1988. Klaasen also taught at NCAD and Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design.

A selection of his linocut prints was exhibited in the National Print Museum in 2004.