Hans Klein Hofmeijer Dutch, 1957-2025
Hans Klein Hofmeijer’s drawings and paintings are best understood by what they are not. They occupy a unique space that is neither purely figurative nor entirely abstract. While his compositions spark an immediate sense of recognition, they stubbornly resist being tied to specific objects, people, or settings.
Instead of copying what he observed in the external environment, Klein Hofmeijer drew from an inner world shaped entirely by experience. His creative process was intuitive and unplanned; he described his methodology as simply putting pencil to paper and allowing it to move, letting the work organically generate out of itself. The resulting physical, scenic works capture recognizable circumstances that remain beautifully elusive, leaving an indelible immaterial trace on the viewer.
Graduating with honours from the St. Joost Academy of Fine Arts in Breda in 1979, Hans Klein Hofmeijer spent decades developing a highly concentrated, solitary studio practice in Oostelbeers, in the province of Noord-Brabant. Rather than aligning himself with passing commercial art trends, he chose a monastic, introspective lifestyle to focus deeply on the elements of time, surface, and human vulnerability.
Over his distinguished career, Klein Hofmeijer's highly personal works on paper, and paintings garnered widespread institutional respect across the region. His work has been prominently featured and collected by Museum van Bommel van Dam in Venlo, where his art remains part of the permanent collection. In 2018, his monumental retrospective book 'Artefact nr. 953 – Gapingen van mijn geest' was launched at the De Pont Museum in Tilburg. Major solo presentations include 'The Blue Drawings' at the historic Bergkerk Deventer and ‘Ont-moeten’ at PARK Platform for Visual Arts in Tilburg. At the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven he participated in the intimate library exhibition 'Verzamelen - The Mail Art Project'.
Most recently his work was part of the group exhibition ‘When I was You’ at the Chabot Museum in Rotterdam, which has added two of Klein Hofmeijer’s works to their permanent collection. Concurrently his works were shown in the group exhibition ‘Klanken’ at Museum Krona in Uden.
