Background
Makkink was born in Winschoten.
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Herman Makkink
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After studying chemistry from 1955 to 1959 in Groningen, Makkink began to walk and hitchhike hike around the world, a phase in his life he described in the book "Around the world on foot" and which he sold to various newspapers, mainly in Southeast Asia. He began to sculpt in the United States, when he made his first assemblage of scrap metal. After a short stay in Greece, he moved to London and became technical assistant at the London College of Printing.
In London, he participated in several group exhibitions.
His first solo exhibition, "Gnomes", was mounted at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 1971. Coincidentally, the Italian filmmaker Tinto Brass also used Rocking Machine in his film Dropout, starring Vanessa Redgrave.
In 1972 Makkink settled in Amsterdam, while making regular visits to Deia, Majorca. His first solo exhibition in the Wetering Gallery in Amsterdam took place in 1982, and the gallery has continued to feature his work ever since.
In 1986 he was visiting professor at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts.
From 1987 to 2000 he taught part-time at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Makkink worked alternately in Bramfield (Suffolk), Molini di Triora-Agaggio and Amsterdam. In Amsterdam Makkink shared, for many years until his death, a studio with his former pupil Adriaan Rees.
Makkink was controversial in Amsterdam.
One of his sculptures - a tubular shape executed in brick at the Spinozahof - was demolished in 1994 because, according to local residents, it obstructed their view. He died in Amsterdam on October 20, 2013.
