Jan Slothouber en William Graatsma weren’t artists. Art rather became what they were already making.
As early as 1955 they worked together to create a visual identity for the dutch mining corporation DSM. Because DSM was a national company, they wanted it to communicate with a shape they saw as democratic. So they based the design completely on the cube.
When in the sixties, especially in the Netherlands, art became more and more geometric, it evolved into what Slothouber en Graatsma had already been doing. It was much to their own surprise, when in 1970 they were chosen to represent the Netherlands on the prestigious Biënnale in Venice.
These "play objects,called Cu-briks were designed in 1964. To find eight of them in the original cube shaped box is very rare. You can arrange them as you like. Wether you call it art or not is also up to you; it's democratic
The Cu-briks are part of the collection of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
