Benjamin Lucien Royaards was born in Schoorl in 1939. After graduating from the Rijksacademie van Beeldende Kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts) in Amsterdam, the artist divided his personal and professional time between his native Netherlands (Amsterdam, Edam, Friesland, Zeeland) and neighbouring Belgium (Antwerp), while spending briefer periods abroad in New York, Paris and the Basses-Alpes. Eventually, he would settle permanently in the Drôme (France) in 1976.
Recognition came when Royaards was still a 19-year-old student, through the commission to paint large frescoes for the Royal Palace on Dam Square. The pressure of this first public project which propelled him into the local spotlight is partly what motivated him to live abroad in order to be able to focus quietly on his craft.
Royaards’ work is characterised by alternating of periods of figuration and abstraction, which sometimes bleed into each other, supported by oil paint, gouache and watercolour, but also drawings and etchings. The definitive move to France would coincide with his adoption of sculpture, the medium with which he is perhaps most associated today.
In 1982, he was awarded first prize for etching at the Venice Biennale.
A selection of his exhibitions includes: Municipal Museum Schiedam, Schiedam (1969); Institut Néerlandais, Paris (1977); Great or Saint Nicholas Church, Edam (1979); Singer Museum, Laren (1983); Realitées Nouvelles, Grand Palais, Paris (1984); Acte 85, Grand Palais Paris (1985); Smelik and Stokking Galleries, The Hague (1990–1993); Art ’91, London (1991); KunstRAI, Amsterdam (1994); Wester Gasfabriek, Amsterdam (1997); Salon du Sud-Est, Lyon (1998); Retrospective exhibition studio, Montbrison sur Lez (2002-2004).
Royaards passed away in 2009.
