© Gibbs Farm 2013
Tried and true colour harmonies based on the three primary colours of red, yellow and blue, are pitted against what van den Eijkel calls his “Pacific colours” in a dialogue between European modernism and the southern hemisphere environment.
The work also pits itself against the gradient and colour gradations of the farm’s green slopes with its precise articulation of a true horizontal plane, the grid and of perfect squares; and through its composition of solid colours floating on their pure black plinths.
Leon van den Eijkel was born in The Hague in The Netherlands in 1940, and studied at The Hague's Royal Academy of Arts from 1958 to 1963. He immigrated to New Zealand from The Netherlands, in 1986 and now lives on Waiheke Island, Auckland. For the past twenty years van den Eijkel has produced light-boxes, sculptures, paintings
and multimedia installations that use reflective surfaces and colours to foster an evolving aesthetic dialogue between his Dutch homeland and the Pacific. Leon van den Eijkel has exhibited widely in Europe, the USA and New Zealand, and is represented in many major public and private collections, including the Stedelijk
Museum, Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent, the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington.
Red Cloud Confrontation in Landscape
1996
25 cast formed and painted
concrete cubes 17.5 x 17.5m

Leon van den Eijkel

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