Marcel van Eeden (born 22 November 1965, in The Hague, Netherlands) is a Dutch draftsman and painter. From 1989 to 1993 van Eeden studied painting at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. Van Eeden lives and works in Zurich and The Hague. Characteristically, van Eeden's work is reminiscent of the film-noir period, of almost photo-realistic depictions and he manipulates the use of the black and white contrast. A wider audience was introduced to his work after his contribution to the Berlin Biennale in 2006.
Marcel van Eeden is primarily recognised for his drawings, for which he mainly works with charcoal pencils, however he also uses coloured pencils or water-colour paint. The majority of the drawings have a 19 cm x 28 cm / 7,5" x 11" format. [1] Van Eeden produced a drawing everyday from 2001 to 2007, which he published daily onto his blog. In 2007, he concluded the blog and returned for the first time since his studies to painting, however he does continue to draw. Van Eeden's paintings, as well as his drawings, utilise a variety of templates, which are all taken from the years before his date of birth, 1965. Van Eeden calls this project "The Encyclopedia of my Death". The templates include photographs, exhibition catalogues, newspaper clippings, magazines and illustrations or even cloth patterns. Many of the works show nocturnal urban scenes, fires, abstract shapes and patterns as well as short excerpts of stencilled texts. By focussing on the virtually infinite time span before his birth, van Eeden accepts his own existence as a merely insignificant part of a genuine time stream and discards the finiteness of his own existence. [2]
Van Eeden assembles both his paintings and drawings in the same manner; in both mediums, he pursues a picturesque approach and focuses more on the images' grey tonal composition rather than the line. In this respect, he compares his work to the pastel chalk drawings of Edgar Degas. [3]
In 2004/2005 van Eeden began to group his drawings together to form different sized series. This was inspired, amongst other things, by Robert Walser's „Spaziergang“ text which extended over a collection of drawings or constantly recurring characters.
The first great series to emerge from this modus was the 150 piece series „K. M. Wiegand. Life and Work“, 2006. K. M. Wiegand is a real historical botanist, whose biography can be found cited as short passages of text on the drawings. Through the combination of images, which do not necessarily have anything to do with the particular passages of text, van Eeden constructs a fictional biography for the botanist. This approach was recycled in later series', such as „Celia“, 2004–2006 and „The Archeologist. The Travels of Oswald Sollmann“, 2007 and „The death of Matheus Boryna“, 2007. The protagonists of these series', K.M. Wiegand, Celia Copplestone, Oswald Sollmann and Matheus Boryna, are featured together in the work „Witness for the prosecution“, in 2008.
Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven is a Belgian artist whose work involves painting, drawing, computer art and video art.
Eberhard Bosslet is a German contemporary artist who has been producing site-specific art and architectural-related works, such as sculpture, installation, light art and painting, all indoors and outdoors, since 1979.
Matthias Weischer is a German painter living in Leipzig. He is considered to be part of the New Leipzig School.
Thomas Zipp is an artist based in Berlin.
Franz Gertsch was a Swiss painter and printmaker who was known for his large format photorealistic portraits and detailed studies of nature.
Stefan Banz was an artist and curator.
Klaus Peter Brehmer, was a German painter, graphic artist and filmmaker. From 1971 to 1997 he was professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg.
Beate Gütschow is a contemporary German artist. She lives and works in Cologne and Berlin.
Michael Riedel is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Frankfurt. His work operates at the interface between applied graphics and free art. Since 2017, he has been professor of painting/graphics at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig.
Stephan Huber is a German sculptor and object artist.
Gregor Hildebrandt is a German contemporary artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Nanne Meyer, is a German artist. She is one of the first women artists of the postwar generation who works primarily in drawing. Meyer lives and works in Berlin.
Stefan Ettlinger is a German painter and draughtsman. He studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf at Alfonso Hüppi as a master student. He lives and works in Düsseldorf.
Römer + Römer are a German-Russian artist couple living and working in Berlin, Germany.
Peter Zimmermann is a German painter, sculptor, object artist and university professor.
Sabine Hornig is a German visual artist and photographer who lives and works in Berlin. Her work in photography, sculpture, and site-specific installation art is known for her interpretations of modernist architecture and contemporary urban life. Her work has appeared in solo exhibitions throughout the world, including Double Transparency at Art Unlimited Basel in Switzerland (2014) and Projects 78 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2003), and in numerous group exhibitions at institutions like the J.Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and ICA London.
Laura Bruce is an American contemporary artist living in Berlin.
Michaela Kölmel was a German artist and university professor from Karlsruhe. Her artistic work included drawings, sculptures, site-specific installations, and interventions in public spaces.
Christoph Girardet is a German filmmaker and artist. He lives and works in Hanover.
Johann Büsen is a German visual artist.