Leon van den Eijkel

A Kynic Tree

2006

steel

Bonsai Tree

2006

steel

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. The artist came to New Zealand from The Netherlands in 1986. He trained at the Royal Academy of Arts at The Hague from 1958-1963.

Brick Bay’s Kynic Tree is one of Leon van den Eijkel’s trademark ‘urban trees’. The artist’s story tells it all.

“I was five years of age. It was near the end of the war in Holland. All the trees in my city had been cut down for heating, so we children didn’t know what a tree actually was. We only had black and white images of them.

So we made urban trees from all sorts of wood, strips of cloth, broken pieces of glass and iron that we could find in the street.

As a treat my father decided to walk us all for more than 2 hours to the park to see a real tree. When we arrived, there was an awesome specimen standing in defiance of the hard times. My father announced authoritatively “This is an Oak.” Still standing, in defiance, at the end of a long war, it looked so happy, in that early spring light.

There is immense joy in nature – in its colour, texture, movement. It is a source of energy for people of all ages to draw from.”*

A Kynic Tree stands in the spirit of defiance against the harsh elements of the climate and the weather. Its bright colours are intended to lighten people’s hearts whatever the conditions or the time of day. Through his art Leon van den Eijkel wants to remind people of the positive that still exists in an often harsh world. ‘Urban trees’ are the answer.

Dr. Robin Woodward

*Artist’s statement Brick Bay 2006