Aart J. Leemhuis

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Geometric abstraction & abstract painting art, by Dutch artist Aart J. Leemhuis

Aart J. Leemhuis was born in the village Halfweg nearby Amsterdam in 1936; he is a painter-artist and philosopher - still living and working in the capital of The Netherlands.

For six years he visited the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam and one year the Hoger Instituut in Antwerpen, Belgium: drawing, painting and sculpture. In 1975 he started at the Univerity of Amsterdam (UVA) studying  humanities, especialy philosophy.

He got a scholarship of the Belgian, as well as the French government.

The artistical development of his work shows in the beginning impact of academic impressionism and expressionism  (selfportrait),  thereafter influences of the Russian structuralism (compositions Va) and finally geometrical abstraction (compositions R), as his most recent artworks show.

He makes two and three dimensional objects in oil / acryl on canvas; also watercolours and objects constructed of board and perspex. Moreover he made several silkscreen prints in the area of geometrical abstract art.

Leemhuis had a. o. two solo exhibitions in Amsterdam and Leeuwarden, and groups-exposityions in Groningen, Den Haag, Amsterdam, Leeuwarden and Antwerpen.

Moreover he made some books (translation and commentary) about esthetical texts such as Schillers 'Aesthetiche Erziehung', 'Briefwechsel  Schiller/Goethe' and Winckelmanns 'Gedanken über die Nachahmung der Griechischen Werke'.

Keywords regarding Leemhuis’ work are simplicity, ambiguity and seriality.
In his professional attitude he entertains the interaction between hand en head, art and philosophy. The goal of the creating process of Leemhuis seems to be the classical ideal of ‘Edle Einfalt und stille Grösse’ / Noble simplicity and quite magnificence‘ - without neglecting  the reality of time, space and humanity.