Jan Beekman was born in Meise, just outside Brussels in 1929. A graduate of the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, like many of his Belgian contemporaries, the artist first dedicated his time and efforts to political activism. Quickly, however, the urge to create grew irresistible. At the end of the 1950s, Beekman started out as a freelance scenographer. His first job was in the drama section of the National Belgian Television station, BRT. Shortly afterwards, he began a series of noteworthy collaborations with major theatres in both Brussels and Flanders, such as the Koninklijke Vlaamse Schouwburg and Beursschouwburg, both in Brussels, and the Ghent-based Arcatheater and Nationaal Theater Gent.
Nevertheless, despite demand and respect for his craft, Beekman could not help but see this activity as a full-time occupation cannibalising his artistic career and desire to create. He had already exhibited work in the 1960s, chiefly at the Galerie Zodiaque in Brussels and at several shows by the Flemish constructivist group G-58. In the 1970s, Beekman made the difficult decision to cease his professional activity in order to concentrate on teaching and, more importantly, practising painting. The artist quickly exported his talent for painting and drawing to neighbouring countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and England. This early corpus is resolutely abstract and marked by a darker colour palette. A characteristic emphasis on space and light in many of his compositions points directly to his previous experience as a set designer.
Although he was acutely aware of contemporary trends, rich with his own formative personal experience and baggage, Beekman steered clear of trends to hone his personal vernacular. Nature holds a central place in his corpus, but more as an abstract feeling than a figurative motif. Through rhythm, space, dynamics, musicality, geometry, patterns and colouring, Beekman explores nature in intimate ways that allow for great thematic consistency, all while allowing for radical formal evolution.
The mid-1980s saw a pivotal turn in the Belgian painter’s career: a move to the United States. There, he painted what is arguably his most famous painting: the portrait of Nelson Mandela (1990). The sober immortalisation, which took three years to complete, sought to capture the moment of Mandela’s stepping into the light after 27 years of incarceration. After residing in Chicago for a time, Beekman’s appetite for nature took him eastwards in 1997 to rural Connecticut, where he settled in a place surrounded by forest.
The discreet socio-political voice present in Beekman’s work has grown louder with time. The Mandela portrait perhaps served as a shift in that regard. Recently, his love of nature has led him to vocally denounce the denial of global warming and climate change, while an exhibition organised by and housed at the Beekman Foundation heavily criticised Donald Trump and his presidential policies.
Jan Beekman currently lives and works in Connecticut.
