Background
Eekman was born in Brussels in the house where Victor Hugo wrote Les Misérables.
Eekman was born in Brussels in the house where Victor Hugo wrote Les Misérables.
He illustrated many books, notably The Destinies by Alfred de Vigny (1933), Beer‐Drinker"s Tales by Charles Deulin (1945), Tyl Ulenspiegel by Charles de Coster (1946) and Culotte the Donkey by Henri Bosco (1950). He is also notable for his drawings, watercolours and engravings. At 18, Eekman gave his first lecture in Brussels titled The unknown Van Gogh who in 1907 was an unacknowledged artist by the general public.
In 1912, he went to see the first Van Gogh exhibition in Cologne, Germany.
After graduating as an architect from the Fine Arts Academy in Brussels, he took refuge during the First World War in the presbytery of Nuenen, where Baronet de Ligt was a pastor. Thirty years earlier, the Van Gogh family lived in the same presbytery, where Vincent created The Potato Eaters.
Up until the end the war, Eekman exhibited his work frequently in Dutch museums and collectors purchased some of his artwork, primarily Helene Kröller-Müller. A few months after a great retrospective at the Reflets Gallery in Brussels, he died on 13 November 1973 in Paris.
He was buried at the Ivry Cemetery.
After settling in Paris in 1921, Eekman continued showing his art in France and abroad. This would be the only time that Mondrian"s paintings would be exhibited in a gallery in Paris. They were close friends.
During the 1930s, Eekman participated in many group exhibitions, mainly in the United States, and his solo exhibitions took place all over Europe.
In the interwar period, Eekman was part of the artistic movement that revolved around Montparnasse. In the beginning of World World War II, he was sought by the Nazis and settled momentarily in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where he signed his work under the Ekma pseudonym.
In 1944, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels organized a significant exhibition in which he participated, which the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium attended. In 1961, an important fresco (250 x 140 m – 82 x 45 ft) of medicinal plants from around the world was commissioned to Eekman by Professor
H. Griffon and was completed for Paris Orly Airport"s drugstore.
Several exhibitions were held in France and in the Netherlands. A catalogue raisonné of his work is currently in preparation.