Peaceful moment (2025) Painting by Bart Van Zweeden

Painting started in the late 1970s as a young biology student. Fascinated by the richness of forms that our world knows, the foundation was laid for the type of work that is still preferred today. After graduating, the work as an artist has been sidelined for a long time. A family had to be supported.
It was not until the 1980s that Bart received relevant training at the Vrije Academie in The Hague and his arsenal of means of expression was considerably increased. For several years he worked a lot with etching and screen printing and experimented a lot to get the most out of the possibilities that these techniques offer.
A first successful exhibition in 1988 made it clear that more was needed to capture things in terms of expression and images. This exhibition and the later version in 1995 in The Hague made it clear to Bart that there was also a preference for a freer conception of reality using graphic techniques.
In those years, numerous partial courses were followed for model and portrait, which greatly benefited him in his work.
In a more recent trajectory, he studied for two years at the MK24 academy in Amsterdam, where he was more confronted with contemporary art and the vision from which work in that direction is created. Although the connection with his own expectations was not entirely without setbacks, these years nevertheless led to a deepening of his thinking about art and art expression and the way in which we can deal with reality. It was precisely the work of others that gave him new ideas and formed the basis for the current work.
Bart is also trained on the classical side by visiting a few summer schools at the Classical Academy in Groningen in the Netherlands. Although these visits were short, work was done here on fine-tuning the painting from observation of model and portrait. This knowledge has been further deepened and enriched in our own workshop.
Bart has now completed several exhibitions, including the most recent EuropArtFair 2023, where he received the EuropArtFair Award (2nd place).
Bart was born in 1958 in Amsterdam as the last child in a family of five. His parents have always supported and encouraged him in his work as an artist to bring out the best in himself.

* 1958, Amsterdam

2022-2022 Klassieke Academie Groningen: Summerschool
2020-2020 Klassieke Academie Groningen: Summerschool
2018-2019 MK24 Amsterdamse Academie, Amsterdam
2012-2015 Educational Master Biology, Utrecht
1995-1999 BA Education Mathematics, Utrecht
1987-1988 Vrije Academie Den Haag
1978-1983 BA Education Biology/Chemistry, Amsterdam

• Nationality: NETHERLANDS
• Date of birth : 1958
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary Dutch Artists