Wim T. Schippers Timeline

Wim T. Schippers 36

1942 Wim T. Schippers born in Groningen Willem Theodoor Schippers is born in Groningen, the Netherlands, into a musical family. He grows up in Bussum, North Holland, where his interest in art, language and absurdism begins to develop early.
1955 Grows up in Bussum Schippers spends his youth in Bussum, a prosperous village in the Gooi region, where he is exposed to literature, theatre and the visual arts. His central philosophy of life — that life makes no sense — begins to form at an early age.
1958 Studies at the Kunstnijverheidsschool Amsterdam Schippers begins a course at the Kunstnijverheidsschool (later the Gerrit Rietveld Academy) in Amsterdam but does not graduate. The institution nonetheless gives him a thorough grounding in design and the visual arts.
1959 Breakthrough: Stedelijk Museum buys his drawings The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, then led by progressive director Willem Sandberg, purchases drawings by the young Schippers — a remarkably early recognition for an artist barely twenty years old.
1960 Co-founds the A-dynamic movement Together with like-minded artists including Ger van Elk, Bob Wesdorp and Willem de Ridder, Schippers founds the A-dynamic movement: art that is deliberately dull, confusing and apparently without content, as a reaction to the expressive painting of the 1950s.
1961 Sculptures for the disfigurement of cities The A-dynamic group places deliberately ugly artworks in public spaces — "sculptures for the disfigurement of cities" — and deliberately obstructs the entrances and exits of buildings. The public is confused and provoked. Schippers is the driving force behind the provocative programme.
1962 Concept for the Peanut Butter Floor conceived Schippers conceives the idea for his most famous artwork: a floor entirely smeared with peanut butter. The idea dates from 1962, though its first realisation comes later. The work is a perfect embodiment of his philosophy: pointless, but worth doing.
1963 – 1964 Fluxus festivals with Willem de Ridder Schippers organises Fluxus festivals in Amsterdam together with Willem de Ridder, at gallery Amstel 47. The international Fluxus movement — active in New York, Germany and Japan — fits seamlessly with his ideas about art as action, performance and meaninglessness.
1964 Bottle of lemonade emptied into the sea In a performance on the beach at Scheveningen, Schippers empties a bottle of lemonade into the North Sea — one of his most quoted actions, summarising the essence of his art: a solemn, ceremonial gesture for something entirely pointless.
1965 Concert for sandwiches in Scheveningen Schippers organises a "concert for sandwiches" at which the audience leaves the hall in confusion. The event illustrates his conviction that expectation and disappointment are at the core of every cultural experience.
1965 Life-size chair in the Vondelpark Schippers places a life-size chair in the Vondelpark in Amsterdam on 1 April 1965 — an object that upends the relationship between human beings, space and meaning, observed with amused seriousness by passers-by.
1967 Joins the VPRO Schippers begins working for the progressive public broadcaster VPRO, which gives him a platform for his provocative ideas. He describes television as "the greatest gallery in the world" — a medium through which he can simultaneously surprise, irritate and amuse millions.
1967 VPRO pulls Hoepla after four episodes When it becomes clear that the fourth episode of Hoepla also contains nudity, the VPRO withdraws the programme without consulting Schippers. Outraged, he leaves — a pattern that will mark his relationship with the broadcaster throughout his career.
1967 Hoepla — first nude on Dutch television In the first episode of the youth programme Hoepla, which Schippers makes together with Willem de Ridder, model Phil Bloom walks naked through the studio set. It is the first nudity on Dutch television. The uproar reaches parliament; questions are tabled and VPRO members cancel their subscriptions en masse.
1969 Peanut Butter Floor realised in Loenersloot The concept Schippers devised in 1962 is executed for the first time in Loenersloot: a floor entirely smeared with peanut butter. The work becomes one of the most discussed artworks in Dutch post-war art history.
1971 Returns to VPRO — De Fred Haché Show Four years after the Hoepla debacle, television director Ruud van Hemert invites Schippers to write scripts and design sets for De Fred Haché Show. Schippers returns and creates his most iconic television characters.
1972 Barend Servet introduced Alongside Sjef van Oekel, Schippers creates the character Barend Servet, played by IJf Blokker — another iconic figure from the Fred Haché Show who acquires his own cult status.
1972 Sjef van Oekel introduced Schippers introduces Sjef van Oekel — a Belgian chip-stall vendor from the village of Reet, played by comedian Dolf Brouwers. The slightly grubby, perpetually excited and sweating Sjef becomes one of the most recognisable comic figures in Dutch television history.
1974 Schippers joins Sesamstraat In the mid-1970s Schippers begins working on Sesamstraat, the Dutch co-production of Sesame Street. Together with his regular partner Paul Haenen — the voice of Bert — he voices Ernie for many years.
1974 – 1975 Van Oekel's Discohoek Sjef van Oekel gets his own show: Van Oekel's Discohoek, a merciless parody of music television programmes. Artists mime their songs and are interrupted and insulted by Van Oekel. A legendary episode featuring Captain Beefheart becomes a cult moment in Dutch television history.
1975 Voice of Ernie, Kermit and Count von Count Schippers provides the voices of multiple Sesamstraat characters: Ernie, Count von Count, Kermit the Frog, Mr. Johnson and Smiley. With Paul Haenen he also writes and produces original albums for Bert and Ernie, with the personal approval of Jim Henson.
1975 Voice of Mickey Mouse in Dutch Schippers becomes the official Dutch voice of Mickey Mouse, a role he holds until the early 1980s, when Disney requests a voice closer to the original American one.
1979 Het Torentje van Drienerlo Schippers creates one of his most poetic artworks: the spire of a church tower rising just above the surface of a pond at the University of Twente, as though the entire church has sunk beneath it. The work is a masterful combination of architecture, water and absurdism.
1980 Ronflonflon — successful radio programme Schippers achieves great success with the radio programme Ronflonflon on VPRO, in which he displays his great love of language: he invents neologisms, wordplay and absurdist monologues that enrich the Dutch language with words and expressions that enter everyday use.
1982 We Zijn Weer Thuis The television series We Zijn Weer Thuis — written and conceived by Schippers — becomes a major success and a further confirmation of his unique position as a writer of television comedy combining absurdism with careful observation of language.
1986 Opzoek naar Yolanda Schippers makes the television series Opzoek naar Yolanda, further consolidating his reputation as one of the most idiosyncratic and original programme-makers in Dutch television history.
1990 De lachende scheerkwast The television production De lachende scheerkwast confirms Schippers' ability to sustain a recognisable and distinctly personal artistic language across decades.
1997 Peanut Butter Floor re-staged at Centraal Museum Utrecht The Centraal Museum in Utrecht restages the Peanut Butter Floor, drawing renewed public attention thirty years after the original and confirming the work's status as one of the most iconic pieces in Dutch conceptual art history.
1999 Artwork "Het Is Me Wat" unveiled Schippers unveils the artwork "Het Is Me Wat" — one of his characteristic objects that elevates the everyday into art by granting it solemn, devoted attention, exactly as he has done throughout his life.
2002 Recognised as one of the most influential conceptual artists in the Netherlands The art world definitively repositions Schippers: the former enfant terrible is now acknowledged as one of the most influential conceptual artists of post-war Netherlands, whose television work and visual art form a unique synthesis.
2010 Peanut Butter Floor restaged in gallery The Peanut Butter Floor is executed for a third time, this time in a gallery, again attracting international attention. The 1962 concept proves timeless and universally legible.
2011 Stationnement Gênant — "Wim's Turd" Schippers creates Stationnement Gênant, a several-metre-high sculpture in the form of excrement, in the garden of VPRO's headquarters in Hilversum. The work — quickly nicknamed "Wim's Turd" — is purchased by VPRO to mark its 85th anniversary.
2015 Represented by Hidde van Seggelen gallery The prestigious Hidde van Seggelen gallery takes Schippers into its programme, giving his visual art a more prominent position on the international art market and ensuring his legacy is systematically managed.
2023 Jana Beranová Prize for pioneering writing Schippers receives the Jana Beranová Prize 2023, awarded by the writers' association, for his pioneering literary and linguistic oeuvre — a welcome late academic recognition alongside his broad popular fame.
2024 Looking back on sixty years of work In various retrospective publications and exhibitions, Schippers' oeuvre is assessed as a whole: visual artist, television maker, songwriter, voice actor and language innovator in one — unique in Dutch cultural history.
2026 Wim T. Schippers dies in Amsterdam aged 83 Wim T. Schippers dies on 10 June 2026 in his home city of Amsterdam. His foundation announces the death. He leaves behind an oeuvre of more than sixty years that pushed the boundaries of art, television, language and absurdism — from the Peanut Butter Floor to the voice of Ernie, from Hoepla to Wim's Turd.