Peter Struycken (1939)
Drawing with light, infusing colour, making decisions on the computer – these are the salient features of Peter Struycken's work. His artistic expressions are frequently encountered in the public space, such as the concrete subway at the NAi in Rotterdam, which at night is enveloped in a rainbow of monochromatic beams of light (1993). Another one of his more famous works is the Queen Beatrix postage stamp (1981), an image of her majesty composed solely of dots. With one leg in the world of art history and the other in the realm of virtual possibilities, Struycken has been developing his typically abstract ideas for paintings, drawings, films and designs on computer since 1968. His work took root in the Zero movement when he turned away from the expression and lyric abstraction of the CoBrA movement along with artists like Jan Schoonhoven, Ad Dekkers and Daan van Golden.
The computer enables Struycken to calculate infinite transformations of colour, structure and tint, striving to achieve the most complex possible set of combinations. The nature of Struycken's work has made him highly sought for site-specific projects. His work includes the ceiling lighting of the Concert Hall in Tilburg and the Blauwe Golven parking garage under the Nelson Mandela Bridge in Arnhem. In 2008, he was awarded the Medal of Honour for Arts and Sciences by Queen Beatrix personally.
