Fantasy Animal I, 1985

Jan Sierhuis is primarily an expressionist painter. With Appel, Corneille and Lucebert he is at the heart of post-war developments in contemporary art. This led to an involvement with the movement De Experimentelen in 1947, and, in 1948 with the CoBrA group.

His inspiration derives partly from Cézanne, Matisse, Van Gogh and Picasso. Early in his career, Sierhuis painted naturalistic landscapes. During the 1950s and 1960s, when painting became wilder and more experimental, his work was almost exclusively abstract. This was followed by a period in which figurative themes such as dancing figures, portraits and landscapes appeared in his work.

Sierhuis almost always spends his Summers in Spain, pursuing his passion for flamenco, a dance which reveals itself in the colour, emotion, movement and rhythm of many of his paintings.

Over the last few years, Sierhuis has expanded his oeuvre to include three-dimensional work.

Sierhuis is a former advisor at the Rijksakademie and studied there between 1945-1947 and 1953-1956.

Exhibitions and awards:

In 1956 Sierhuis received the Thérèse van Duyl-Schwartze portrait prize and in 1957 he received the Royal Grant for Painting, In 1989 Sierhuis received the Sandberg Prize. In 2002, he was made an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. Sierhuis’ work has been exhibited in Japan, the United States, South America and several European countries. In the Netherlands, his work is included in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, among others.