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Q. S. Serafijn

Dutch artist and writer (1960–2024)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 22, 2025
Entity authorityQ20829933 ↗
Source-derived summary

Robert Hack (19 February 1960 – 1 June 2024), known professionally as Q. S. Serafijn, was a Dutch conceptual artist and author, who worked as sculptor, photographer, and installation artist.

Life and work

Born in Roosendaal en Nispen, Serafijn attended the Academie voor Beeldende Vorming (now Fontys Hogeschool voor de Kunsten) in Tilburg from 1978 to 1983 and the Ateliers '63 in Haarlem from 1983 to 1986.

After graduation he settled as an independent artist in Rotterdam in 1991. He was also lecturer of visual arts and art theory at the Jan Van Eyck Academie from 1991 to 1993, visual arts at the Willem de Kooning Academie from 1993 to 1999 and visual arts and art theory at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie since 2007. In 1992 Q.S. Serafijn received the Charlotte Köhler Award, an incentive prize of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

For the city center of Doetinchem Q.S. Serafijn and the Dutch architect Lars Spuybroek designed the so-called D-tower, a large, interactive sculpture connected to a website that surveys the emotional lives of the inhabitants. In 2010 Q.S. Serafijn and sculptor Gijs Assmann (born 1966) released the equestrian statue, entitled John Wayne, in the Wateringse Veld, a new district of Den Haag.

Serafijn died in Rotterdam on 1 June 2024, at the age of 64.

Selected publications

Lily Van Ginneken, Jaap Guldemond, Q.S. Serafijn (1990), Panorama.

Q.S. Serafijn (2003).

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Q. S. Serafijn” is dutch artist and writer (1960–2024). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Serafijn, Dutch and artist, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1960, 2024, 1978, 1983—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1960-02-19. For this dossier, Serafijn, Dutch and artist is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “dutch artist and writer (1960–2024)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 22, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q20829933. VIAF identifies the subject as 291149066392165600938. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 2024, 1978 and 1983.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Q. S. Serafijn”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Q. S. Serafijn primary sources, Q. S. Serafijn archive and Serafijn research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Q. S. Serafijn”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Q. S. Serafijn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.