Biography
Eugène Brands (1913–2002) was an important Dutch painter. He was briefly associated with the renowned artists’ group CoBrA.
In 1946, Brands participated in the group exhibition Jonge schilders at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. During this exhibition, an entire gallery was devoted to his work. Through his experimental work around the war years, he played a pioneering role for CoBrA artists such as Appel, Constant, and Corneille. Shortly after the exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1949, where CoBrA presented itself in the Netherlands for the first time, Brands left the CoBrA group.
In the 1950s, he withdrew to his studio and became inspired by the drawings of his young daughter, Eugénie. In the 1960s, he returned to the colour palette associated with CoBrA. Throughout his life, Brands was fascinated by the cosmos, stars, and planets, as well as by the mystery of life. His credo was “Panta rhei”—everything flows, everything moves.
In addition to paintings, Brands also created assemblages, applying the same abstraction and colour palette as in his painting. In 2012, two collections of experimental poems and stories from his estate were published posthumously.
From 1967 onward, he taught at the Academy of Art and Design in ’s-Hertogenbosch. From 1973, he worked during the summers in Nunspeet; later, he also maintained a studio in Provence.
Works by Eugène Brands have been shown in various major museum survey exhibitions, including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Museum De Beyerd in Breda, and the Chabot Museum in Rotterdam.
