José Heerkens

Netherlands  • 1950

Presentation

José Heerkens is a Dutch painter who has developed a very personal minimalist style, where colours and lines both have an equal and complementary importance. She lives and works in Zeeland. Heerkens studied Art of Painting at the Royal Academy for Art and Design in ’s–Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, where she graduated in 1984.

In 2011, she was artist-in-residence at The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, CT, USA. Heerkens' paintings are oil on linen which is stretched and prepared on frames of aluminium and wood. For her works on paper, she uses acrylic and watercolor.

Searching for space is an important inspiration for José Heerkens. Continuing the ideas of minimal art and concrete art she finds her visual language by working with the reality of colour, line, paint, measure and form. Balance, concentration and intensity in the dialogue between systematic principles and a more empirical search for the interaction of colour, light and space, is a neverending research and challenge.

Heerkens' work is displayed in various museum and private collections in the Netherlands. Her work is also featured internationally in public and private collections in several European countries, Australia and the U.S.A. José Heerkens has widely exhibited in Northern and Eastern Europe as well as Australia, China and US, in various solo and group exhibitions. Her work is also present in numerous publications.

"In every painting I search for the balancing dialogue between a line and the movement of color. There is the need to zoom in on the colour and the appropriate dosage of its space, light and energy. I search for each colour and its identity. When more colours come together they start to communicate and to relate to each other. This interaction makes colours move.

Being free of matter, colour gets its form in the length and width of a line, by the touch and the physicality of paint. The line is an important means to shape and guide space, both the vertical and the horizontal lines are needed. Yet it is the horizontal line that predominates through the painting process, it pulls the image out, to the sides, towards a horizontal space. The vertical lines create the structure or framework on which the horizontals walk their own rhythm. In the complexity of the process of painting I strive for simplicity and clearness."

- José Heerkens
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Who is the artist?

José Heerkens is a Dutch painter who has developed a very personal minimalist style, where colours and lines both have an equal and complementary importance. She lives and works in Zeeland. Heerkens studied Art of Painting at the Royal Academy for Art and Design in ’s–Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, where she graduated in 1984.In 2011, she was artist-in-residence at The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, CT, USA. Heerkens' paintings are oil on linen which is stretched and prepared on frames of aluminium and wood. For her works on paper, she uses acrylic and watercolor.Searching for space is an important inspiration for José Heerkens. Continuing the ideas of minimal art and concrete art she finds her visual language by working with the reality of colour, line, paint, measure and form. Balance, concentration and intensity in the dialogue between systematic principles and a more empirical search for the interaction of colour, light and space, is a neverending research and challenge.Heerkens' work is displayed in various museum and private collections in the Netherlands. Her work is also featured internationally in public and private collections in several European countries, Australia and the U.S.A. José Heerkens has widely exhibited in Northern and Eastern Europe as well as Australia, China and US, in various solo and group exhibitions. Her work is also present in numerous publications."In every painting I search for the balancing dialogue between a line and the movement of color. There is the need to zoom in on the colour and the appropriate dosage of its space, light and energy. I search for each colour and its identity. When more colours come together they start to communicate and to relate to each other. This interaction makes colours move. Being free of matter, colour gets its form in the length and width of a line, by the touch and the physicality of paint. The line is an important means to shape and guide space, both the vertical and the horizontal lines are needed. Yet it is the horizontal line that predominates through the painting process, it pulls the image out, to the sides, towards a horizontal space. The vertical lines create the structure or framework on which the horizontals walk their own rhythm. In the complexity of the process of painting I strive for simplicity and clearness."- José Heerkens

When was José Heerkens born?

The year of birth of the artist is: 1950