Dick de Groot
Encyclopedia
Dick de Groot was born in Scheveningen, a beach suburb of The Hague
in the Netherlands
. After the usual schooling that prepared him for the business world he decided to follow his old dream of being a painter
. He studied five years at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts
and took post-graduate classes in sculpture.
In 1959 de Groot came to America
with his wife Hans and five children. He started painting gigantic faces, foaming glasses of beer and entire scenes up to eighty feet (24 m) long, for the advertising industry. A good year of this was enough and Dick went on his own, doing murals, portraits in oils or bronze, always on commission. A long period of involvement in business followed and he kept painting in spare time, without the pressure of having to make a living at it.
Now, in retirement he can do as he pleases and describes his work as follows:
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. After the usual schooling that prepared him for the business world he decided to follow his old dream of being a painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
. He studied five years at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts
Royal Academy of Art (The Hague)
The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague is an art academy in the Netherlands. It is the oldest art academy in Europe. Known in Dutch as "Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, Den Haag" it was founded on 29 September 1682 when its predecessor, the Haagsche Teekenakademie was dissolved.- External...
and took post-graduate classes in sculpture.
In 1959 de Groot came to America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with his wife Hans and five children. He started painting gigantic faces, foaming glasses of beer and entire scenes up to eighty feet (24 m) long, for the advertising industry. A good year of this was enough and Dick went on his own, doing murals, portraits in oils or bronze, always on commission. A long period of involvement in business followed and he kept painting in spare time, without the pressure of having to make a living at it.
Now, in retirement he can do as he pleases and describes his work as follows:
I refuse to paint "sure sellers", such as the cute, the corny, the romantic, the sentimental, the narrative. My favorite subject is the contemporary American urban scene, which I find exciting and uniquely suited to my taste. I like to use clues that give an illusion of space, or only a suggestion of it around the corner or beyond the hill. The opposites of mass and space, of volumes and voids intrigue me. They are the basis of my compositions. The urban landscape is rich in geometric planes that can be arranged in expressive combinations of color and light-dark values. I want to see each element in my work in harmony with the total. That includes clouds, traffic signTraffic signTraffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of roads to provide information to road users. With traffic volumes increasing over the last eight decades, many countries have adopted pictorial signs or otherwise simplified and standardized their signs to facilitate international travel...
s, telephone poles etc. I will change the subject to suit my purpose. Things are moved, added or left out in a process of translating reality into a painted and new reality, that may be subjectively interpreted.