14/18: Nuns and soldiers Drawing

Eric Ezendam was born in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, where he studied Art and Art history at the Rietveld Academy. Later on in Milan, he immersed himself in the world of graphic design, and through the ensuing years combined that profession with the fine Arts. He worked many years from Amsterdam, also a year in in Italy, in Rome and afterwards he travelled through many other countries. Since 2000 he has devoted his talent exclusively to fine Art, with his graphic work greatly enhanced by his knowledge of the computer. In addition to drawing with charcoal (often in large format) and terracotta chalk or Indian inks, along with oil painting on canvas, he finds the computer a fascinating medium for exploring new ways of expression. Many of his works are printed in high quality very limited editions (rarely more than 10 prints), but of course his charcoals are unica, as are his unique reworked large Giclées. “Ezendam is a master of all weapons” wrote the late Martin van Amerongen when he was editor-in-chief of the Dutch weekly De Groene. While interviewing Ezendam for his radio programme, ‘Visiting Artists in Their Studio’ art critic Toine Moerbeek exclaimed: “Those mysterious, sometimes cynical scenes you create, Eric, that’s pure theatre of the absurd. And those superb very large drawings, they are the result of a lifelong passion!”. And Gallery-owner Anne-Claire Vogtschmidt discerned in the artist’s oeuvre an almost metaphysical aspect: “Time in his work plays a different role, reality is somewhat pushed aside or backwards, and we, beautiful in our ugliness, we are put there in a loving way in this place where we haven’t been before.”