Coen Meulendijks - No title

Coen Meulendijks was not only a painter but also a sculptor. He trained at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague. He left the latter prematurely. His preference for an organic, expressive visual language did not correspond with the ideas prevailing there at the time. He was inspired by his father's pre-Colombian and African art collection and work by artists such as Grünewald, El Greco, Ensor and especially Lucebert. Meulendijks painted immediately on the canvas, without preliminary study. While painting, he continued until he felt he had achieved the right composition and expression. In his works, ordinary, everyday things are reshaped and arranged into a magical, surreal, sometimes oppressive world. His sculptures also have an organic, expressive design language. They are cast in bronze or composed of different types of stone, such as bluestone, marble and limestone.