Aart Roos, born in Zaandam in 1919, was a Dutch painter, printmaker, glass and mural painter, monumental artist, draftsman, lithographer, textile artist, and professor at the academy.
Roos gained recognition in the 1950s and ’60s for his expressionist and monumental paintings. His style is classified as abstract expressionism. He received his education in Zaandam and, from 1941 to 1944, studied at the Rijksakademie of Fine Arts in Amsterdam. There he learned portrait and figure drawing from Prof. G.V.A. Röling, who was both his teacher and mentor. Roos also taught Piet Warffemius during his time at the academy.
Among his fellow classmates were Jef Diederen, Pieter Defesche, Karel Appel, Corneille, and Ko Sarneel. After the war, Roos mastered various painting techniques and became an active member of the newly founded Professional Association of Visual Artists (BBK).
Aart Roos drew inspiration from Picasso, Paul Klee, and Constant Permeke in his youth, and later from Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, and Graham Sutherland. His style transitioned from figurative to abstract expressionism immediately after the war. His paintings were vibrant and often explored the drama of human relationships or revealed the drama of nature.
In and around Amsterdam, Aart Roos created numerous monumental works on commission for municipalities and companies. The most famous of these is the fifteen-meter-long mural Birds and Flowers, located in the former Timorschool in Amsterdam, which was completed in 1962.
From 1968 to 1980, Roos served as a professor of monumental art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague. The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam acquired 19 of his works, as did other museums and institutions. In addition, the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE) manages a collection of around twenty of his works. Roos continued to paint until 1995 when a stroke forced him to retire.
www.ftn-books.com has the MONOGRAPH on Aart Roos now available.
