Leon van den Eijkel (15 October 1940 – 15 April 2021) was a Dutch-born New Zealand artist who studied at

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

Royal Academy of Art The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

from 1958 to 1963, and emigrated to New Zealand in 1986. Van den Eijkel exhibited widely in Europe, the United States, and New Zealand, and is represented in many major public and private collections.

Biography

Van den Eijkel was born in The Hague on 15 October 1940. He studied at the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague, from 1958 to 1963. He moved to

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

in 1967, and emigrated to New Zealand in 1986. He first settled in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

, remaining there until 1998, before moving to

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

, where he lived for the rest of his life. Van den Eijkel died on 15 April 2021, aged 80.

Style

His use of colour has been heavily influenced by the works of

Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He was one of the pioneers o ...

which he saw as a child in his native Netherlands. After moving to New Zealand and visiting the

kauri ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees, native to Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is one of three extant genera in the family Araucariaceae, alongside '' Wollemia'' and ''Araucaria'' (being ...

forests he was inspired to produce a series of works based on urban trees which culminated in the ''Urban Forest'' sculpture in Wellington. This work has the size and heft of a kauri tree trunk combined with his trademark primary colours. He collaborated on this work and other large fabricated steel pieces with the engineer Alan Brown and the team at Metal Art Ltd.

Public collections

He is represented in major international collections including: *

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from its two most important donors, Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. The museum is located a ...

, Rotterdam * Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent *

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, New York *

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa ( Māori for ' the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand ...

, Wellington

Notable works

*''Mondrian after Mondriaan'' shown both at Galerir Stelling, Leiden (1993) and Museum of New Zealand (1995) *''Red Cloud Confrontation in Landscape'' (1996) – Gibbs Farm, Kaipara Harbour, New Zealand. *''The Black Paintings'' (1997) New work Studio, Wellington New Zealand *''Tourism on the Line'' (1998) - Galerie Y-burg, Amsterdam *''The Long Cloud Paintings'' (1999) Archill Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand *''A Walk in the Clouds'' (2004) – New Zealand Embassy, The Hague, Netherlands *''Light of Colou''r (2005) – Brian R Richards Ltd, Auckland New Zealand *''Urban Forest'' (2007) – Cobham Drive, Wellington, New Zealand *''The Smiling Windmills'' (2008) – Avalon Park, Lower Hutt, New Zealand *''Cross(Road) (2009)'' – Sculpture on the Gulf, Waiheke Island, New Zealand *''The Remembrance Windmill'' (2009) Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia *''The Next Big Family Series'' (2009) Plantage Galerie, Leiden, The Netherlands *''Towards Photography'' (2011) Toi Gallery, Waiheke Island, Auckland NZ *''Colour Coding'' (2012) New paintings and works on paper. Bowen Galleries, Wellington NZ *''Baubles'' (2013) Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, Warkworth, New Zealand *''The Playing Windmills'' (2014) Hobsonville Point Primary School, Auckland New Zealand *''The Geometric Totem Pole (2017)'' Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, Warkworth, New Zealand..

References

1940 births 2021 deaths Dutch sculptors Dutch male sculptors Artists from The Hague Royal Academy of Art, The Hague alumni Dutch emigrants to New Zealand 20th-century New Zealand sculptors 20th-century New Zealand male artists 21st-century New Zealand sculptors 21st-century New Zealand male artists {{NewZealand-artist-stub