Harry van Gestel (born 12 May 1953) is a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

artist and painter living and working in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, in his gallery and studio in the city centre. The artist is most known for his large abstract works, which range from 2 x 2 meters up to 3 x 6 meters large. He has lived and created his work around the globe, in places such as

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and

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, before returning to Amsterdam.

His Life Journey

Harry van Gestel was born in

Reusel Reusel is a village and former municipality in the south of the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is one of the villages of the municipality Reusel-De Mierden. The village is known on their village dialect (Reusels), which is still spoken, and ...

. He majored his studies in

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

and soon after graduating, he combined his creative instinct with his studies. From the 1980s to the 1990s, he focused on design and decorating projects for multinationals and large shopping malls throughout the Netherlands and the United States. In the late 1980s he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to devote his life to his art.

Works

Van Gestel's works are very diverse and cannot be placed in just one -ism. In 2006

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

Amsterdam organised an exhibition giving a complete overview of his oeuvre and stated: “His oeuvre is vast and significant…….Harry van Gestel is beyond any -ism” (Mr. Max Hemelraad, art historian and former Business Development Director at Sotheby's).The Artist In Between
/ref> The works stand for freedom in a broad sense of the word. The artist states: “With every new work I try to surpass myself to a new way to astonish the viewer with composition that is embedded and communicates freedom”. His works are pure and his creations are not restricted by any conventions whatsoever. The artist describes his works as self-portraits in the sense that the artwork reveals a mirror image of the soul, energy and emotion of the artist at the moment of creation.Press Statement
/ref> None of the artist's works have a title. Van Gestel states that a title for his works, that portray emotion through pureness of soul, does not add anything to the artwork and so only takes away all essential emotional value from the imagination of the spectator.

Shows

In 1981 Harry van Gestel started working on international shows. Throughout the following years, his works were shown in the

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Afterward, in 1984, he worked on multiple projects in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. Between 1990 and 1993 he traveled throughout the United States working on a range of art workshops. In 1992 Van Gestel received a solo show at Gallery Marie Louise Woltering in the well-known Spiegelkwartier in

. Between 1995 and 1997 he worked, lived and realized multiple shows in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Altea Altea (, ) is a city and municipality located in the Valencian Community, Spain, on the section of Mediterranean coast called the Costa Blanca. At present, the economy of Altea is based on tourism, which started to grow in the 1950s because of i ...

, and

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

. Since 1998 Van Gestel has had a permanent exhibition in the centre of Amsterdam. In 2006

Amsterdam featured a solo exhibition, a retrospective overview of his oeuvre. In 2007 The

Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture The in Nagasaki, Japan is one of the few museums in Japan devoted to the theme of "overseas exchange". The museum holds 48,000 items in its collection, including historical documents and arts and crafts, that tell the story of Nagasaki as the s ...

in Japan hosted an exhibition of the works of 5 prominent Dutch artists, including the works of Harry van Gestel. In 2009 Harry exhibited a range of works and held a presentation in the International Museum of Contemporary Art in

Vinhedo Vinhedo is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Campinas. The population in 2020 was 80,111 and its area is . It has a population density of 777 inhabitants per square kilometer. The elevat ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Collections

His work has been collected by

art collector A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...

curators A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

, and

investors An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

from all over the world. It can be found in

private collection A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...

s from

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

, and throughout

Auctions

From around the start of the millennium, the works of Harry van Gestel have been

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

ed by

Amsterdam multiple times. In 2006 Sotheby's organized a solo exhibition of the works of Harry van Gestel at their location in the centre of Amsterdam.

Gallery

In 1998 Harry van Gestel opened his

gallery Gallery or The Gallery may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Art gallery ** Contemporary art gallery Music * Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s Albums * ''Gallery'' (Elaiza album), 2014 album * ''Gallery'' (Gr ...

in the city centre of

. Since ehas 2013 the gallery has been directed by Thomas van de Meer, owner of Vault17. The artist has his studio space in the gallery. The location functions as a spot for international artists to come together and inspire each other. Van Gestel stresses the importance of sharing and collaborating between artists. "Over the years people from all corners of the globe have visited us and have given us the chance to inspire each other. A “sharing" factor in many ways has always prevailed in the gallery, sharing your art, energy, thoughts or space”.

Charity

Harry van Gestel founded the Foundation Mercurius Communication through Art in 1998. The foundation supports charities and projects internationally through the sales of Van Gestel's work. Since 1998 the foundation has supported Het Babyhuis, Cliniclowns, breast cancer research, Bio revalidate, AIDS foundation, Kidney foundation, and primary schools in Brazil, amongst other projects.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gestel, Harry van 1953 births Living people Dutch painters Dutch male painters People from Reusel-De Mierden