Lodewijk Karel "Loki" Bruckman (; 14 August 1903 – 24 April 1995) was a

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

magic realist Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical rea ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. He lived and worked in the Netherlands, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Museum de Oude Wolden Museum de Oude Wolden (; ), abbreviated as MOW, is a regional museum in the village of Bellingwolde in the Netherlands. The museum focuses on art and history of the regions of Oldambt (region), Oldambt and Westerwolde (region), Westerwolde in ...

in the village of

Bellingwolde Bellingwolde (; Gronings dialect, Gronings: ''Bennewolle'') is a village with a population of 2,655 people in the municipality Westerwolde (municipality), Westerwolde in the Netherlands. It is situated in the southeast of the region Oldambt (regi ...

has a permanent exhibition of his paintings.

Biography

Lodewijk Karel Bruckman was born on 14 August 1903 in

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 ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

.Bruckman, Lodewijk

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

. Retrieved on 2013-08-08. He was the son of

house painter A house painter and decorator is a tradesperson responsible for the painting and decorating of buildings, and is also known as a decorator, or house painter.''The Modern Painter and Decorator'' volume 1 1921 Caxton The purpose of painting is t ...

Karel Lodewijk Bruckman (1868–1952) and Wilhelmina Frederika Hamel (1869–1930).Bruckman, K.L.
Digitale Stamboom Den Haag, 2012. Retrieved on 2013-08-08. He had two sisters and two brothers, one of whom was his

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

brother Karel Lodewijk Bruckman (1903–1982).Fijnschilder Lodewijk Bruckman overleden
Leeuwarder Courant, 1995. Retrieved on 2013-08-08. Bruckman studied with his twin brother at the

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 ...

in The Hague, where he was a student of Henk Meijer. He worked first as a

set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

painter, later as a drawing teacher, and eventually as a fine artist.Lodewijk Bruckman (1903 - 1995)
Studio 2000. Retrieved on 2013-08-08. In 1949, Bruckman and his life partner Evert Zeeven, who was also his manager, moved to the United States. They lived in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and

Provincetown Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Pr ...

in the U.S. and also in

Morelia Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid; Otomi language, Otomi: ) is a city and municipal seat of the municipalities of Mexico, municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. It is both th ...

. Bruckman had several gallery exhibitions in New York. In 1968, they returned to the Netherlands, where they lived in

Wemeldinge Wemeldinge is the oldest village in the Zuid-Beveland area of the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is located in the municipality of Kapelle, about 4 km northwest of Yerseke. It is located within the Eastern Scheldt national park. History T ...

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

, and

Bellingwedde Bellingwedde () was a municipality in the province Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands. Bellingwedde was established in 1968, when the municipalities of Bellingwolde and Wedde merged. After almost 50 years, Bellingwedde was disestablishe ...

. Bruckman stopped oil painting in 1986, but continued with pencil drawing. In 1989, they moved to

Leeuwarden Leeuwarden (; ; ; ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 127,073 (2023). It is the provincial capital and seat of the Provin ...

. Zeeven died on 30 November 1993. One and a half year later, Bruckman died on 24 April 1995 in Leeuwarden, at the age of 91.

Painting

Bruckman painted figuratively, forest views, and other

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

s with fruit, flowers, shells, eggs, feathers and towels. His style can be described as realistic,

surrealistic Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

or magic realistic. In 1958, Frank Crotty described Bruckman's painting with the following words: Bruckman gained popularity in the United States, while he remained relatively unknown in the Netherlands. His painting ''Composition With Peaches'' won the popular vote at the

Boston Arts Festival The Boston Arts Festival is an annual event showcasing Boston's visual and performing arts community and promoting Boston's Open Studios program. The weekend-long Festival at Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park features a wide variety of arts and ...

in 1953 and he became second in 1957. He won the J. Porter Brinton Prize in 1954. The

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in New York City has a still life called ''Mobile'' (1955) by Bruckman in its collection and the

Cape Cod Museum of Art Cape Cod Museum of Art is an art museum in the town of Dennis in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States in the center of the region Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner o ...

Dennis Dennis or Denis is a first or last name from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius, via one of the Christian saints named Dionysius. The name came from Dionysus, the Greek god of ecstatic states, particularly those produced by wine, which is some ...

a painting named ''Rancho Style'' (1960). In the 1980s, Bruckman donated fifteen paintings to the municipality of

Goes The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), operated by the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service division, supports weather fo ...

and 21 paintings, with an estimated value of 363,000

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

, to the municipality of Bellingwedde.

in the Netherlands has a permanent exhibition with his paintings from the municipal collection of Bellingwedde.Programma

. Retrieved on 2013-08-08.

References

External links

Lodewijk Bruckman
(in Dutch), website of

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruckman, Lodewijk 1903 births 1995 deaths 20th-century Dutch painters Painters from The Hague Dutch male painters Dutch still life painters Dutch LGBTQ painters Magic realist artists 20th-century Dutch LGBTQ people 20th-century Dutch male artists