Leon van den Eijkel’s colourful three dimensional pieces cut across cultural, gender and age barriers in their reference to the lighter side of life, to fun filled times and happy memories of childhood. The artist’s work has always been about celebrating the positive. In these pieces, The Memory Windmills, he wanted to recall his childhood and the joy that he found in nature and the elements. He wanted to share his idea about the wind as a positive source of energy. As he explains “as a child, growing up in Holland was, for me, exciting and full of joy – the clouds, the rain, the sea and nature played with us.”
“A simple windmill on a stick from the fairground - the run home through cobbled streets holding it high for show and best effect. With it wedged outside my window overnight I listened from my bed for its swishing clickety clack between the droning of urban noises. It made me smile, this joyful symbol of paper engineering.”*
Leon van den Eijkel studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague from 1958-1963. He came to New Zealand from The Netherlands in 1986, lived in Wellington until 1988 and now resides on Waiheke Island. He has exhibited widely in Europe, the USA and in New Zealand where he is represented in major public and private collections including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, museums in Rotterdam and Ghent, The Museum of Modern Art in New York and Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand, Wellington.
Over the past twenty years Leon van den Eijkel has produced sculpture, paintings, multimedia installations and light boxes that utilize reflective surfaces and colour. His work is a continuing dialogue between his homeland in Europe, Holland, and his new home in the Pacific, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Above all, his work is an on-going celebration of life.
Dr Robin Woodward