Léon Spierenburg

The Netherlands, 1952

Léon Spierenburg considers painting a very natural thing. Living in Holland, a country rich of art culture, and being a son of a painter, he has always had an instinctive approach from early age. ‘I paint what I see around me, subjects I feel close to in familiar surroundings’. He prefers the simplicity of a strong image above complex, far fetched concepts. 

There’s a long tradition of still life painting in Spierenburgs homeland. In some of the very early schools there’s already question of a soberness of compositions that will become characteristic for the identity of some of the great Dutch painting periods.
Although these artists often wanted to create a realistic image they choose not to show of by painting objects of splendor, but searched for beauty in simple things, a pot on the corner of a table, a bowl of fruit, etc. In this tradition, Léon Spierenburg, in his own style, explores the limits of minimalism.