Biography
Johan Lennarts (*1932 Eindhoven NL | † 1991 Lagardère FR) was a Dutch visual artist and writer. He is seen as one of the most important post-war artists from Brabant. Therefore he belongs to a generation of painters that are not only confronted with the advance of movements such as Pop Art, Zero, Nouveau Rèalisme and conceptual art but are also part of the cultural renewal movement of the 1960s.
As a teenager, Lennarts had the intention of becoming a Trappist monk and in 1945 started at the Seminarie Beekvliet in Sint-Michielsgestel. From 1948, however, he continued on to secondary education at the Joris College in Eindhoven. He can be considered a self-taught artist, although he enrolled first at the Royal Academy of the Arts in den Bosch and after a short period of time he transferred to the Art Academy in Tillburg. Because of a scholarship that he received in 1959 from the French government, he was able to establish himself as an artist. Initially, Lennarts was mainly influenced by the artist movement CoBrA, especially the spontaneity and the penchant for artistic freedom appealed to him.
Lennarts became best known for his paintings, sculptures and installations and experimented mainly with expressionism, impressionism, surrealism and pop art, often having the preference for the color green. His repertoire, however, was more extensive than that: for example, he also made stained glass windows and sets, and was involved in photography, film and architecture.
In addition, Lennarts wrote poems and theatre plays. In 1967, his publications in the literary magazine Raam were awarded an Eindhoven incentive prize. The following year, his stage performance The Box was played in the Globe Hall of the Parktheater. Artistically he was strongly influenced by philosophers of the 20th century such as Martin Heidegger and Ludwig Wittgenstein about whom he published several works in the 1970s. In 1985, his novel Koekoeksklok in Utopia was awarded a prize by the city of Eindhoven.
Alongside his literary career, he organised several exhibitions. In 1963, he realized the exhibition Schijt aan Schilderkunst together with Ad Snijders and JCJ Vanderheyden held in the Eindhoven gallery Pijnenborg and had the goal to reflect on art that raises questions instead of answers. In 1970, another exhibition took place: Tot lering en vermaak (To education and enjoyment, Van Abbemuseum) in order to bring art closer to people and make it more understandable. Lennarts organized the show together with Ad Snijders and Lukas Smits and, according to their conclusion that artists should be involved in planning the living environment, they transformed the exhibiting space into a private living house.
In the 1970s another artistic phase began, when Lennarts started making cheerful landscapes executed in a calligraphic manner. This period was marked by the artist’s philosophic readings of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger, and the questions that he posed to himself. Empty places were the main subjects of the paintings of this phase: polder landscapes, empty park stations, empty trains, parks and house interiors. Lennarts lived and worked in Eindhoven for a large part of his life. For a few more years he worked in Amsterdam (1985-1988), in Ireland, and at the end of his life he lived and worked in France.
His oeuvre has been on display in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Surinam and several art works belong to the contemporary art collections of both the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. The artist belonged to the association BBK Amsterdam (1969–1981) and Arti et Amicitiae (1981–1991). Lennarts lived in Eindhoven until 1969, then in Griendtsveen (1976–1983), Amsterdam (1983–1987), and finally in France where he died in 1991.