Eric Beets

Eric Beets (1950) is one of the leading abstract expressionist painters in Holland. In the seventies he studied art history in Paris and became an art critic. In ’83 he finally followed his heart and became an artist, resulting in an astoundingly good start with his first exhibition in ’84 in the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, “Koninklijke Subsidie voor de Vrije Schilderkunst”, a royal award. His first favourable criticism about his paintings he received from queen Beatrix of The Netherlands.
Right from the beginning, Beets was strongly attracted to the adventurous and challenging way of abstract expressionism. His work is founded on the representation of the infinite, for which he uses so called reflections –literally mirroring in water-, however other connotations are also possible. The leading motive in his search always remains to use nature as his main source; his ultimate goal is to paint like nature “paints” herself.
It is an achievement that, considering the enormity and vagueness of the theme, Beets doesn’t lose himself in limitless and unimportant images. Through his strong feeling for matter as expression (his paintings have ‘weight’) and solid compositions, the infinite is captured in convincing images. The paintings of Beets are intense and are adding new vitality to abstract expressionism as well as to the classic Dutch landscape tradition. His style has gradually become mature, resulting in beautiful vividly coloured paintings in this century: A crown for his many years of hard work.

drs. Marianne van Gils