Eeghen, Lucas van

It comes as no suprise that the 2017 Triennale di Roma Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed on Lucas van Eeghen. According to the renowned Italian critic and curator, Professor Daniële Radini Tedesci, he has “an extreme individuality that connects him in his painting – the traditional craftsmanship – to Ferdinand Khnopff and even Vermeer.” His current three-dimensional paintings embraces one and are imbued with a formidable yet passionate poetic power and sensitivity.

Van Eeghen is seen at home and abroad as a protagonist of nature – an endangered nature that increasingly is infiltrating the visual arts. Nature is crystallized, embalmed, elevated to eternity. His work invites one to feel and touch, to unravel the mystery of nature and art. Van Eeghen is the alchemist of the twenty-first century.

In the past, art tried to reflect on nature by representing it in one way or another: Natura Artis Magister. Van Eeghen does exactly the opposite: nature itself is frozen and petrified where the dividing line between organic and artificial begins to evaporate. The work represents a longed for return to the original harmony between man and earth and the renewal of what binds them to the origin of time.

Apart from The Netherlands, his work has been exhibited in New York, London, Monaco and Rome. He has won several prestigious prizes including the Leonardo Prize and The Lifetime Achievement Award at the Triennale di Roma 2017.