Harold Klunder

Harold Klunder (born 1943) is a Canadian painter.

Career Born in Deventer, The Netherlands, Klunder emigrated with his family to Canada in 1952. He studied art at the Central Technical School, Toronto.

In 1994, he began to teach at Memorial University of Newfoundland and in 1997–1998, he taught at University of Lethbridge, Alberta. From 1971 to 1979, he used images and patterns often taken from found objects and geometric shapes. He began using oils in 1980 instead of acrylic, thus increasing the sense of materiality of the paint. In the early 1980s, he began developing a figural reference through drawing. By the mid-1980s, Klunder created "portraits" in paint, using his abstract language. He called such work "psychic realism" and his use of an expressionist element was in touch with international painting. In about 1997, his work became more open and brighter, but still suggested figural elements. In 2020, his work was included in Painting Nature with a Mirror, a group show from the collection of the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. His work is also included in public collections such as the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Personal life In 1983, he moved to Flesherton, Ontario, northwest of Toronto. In 1980, he moved to Montreal where he lives now with his partner Catherine Carmichael and best friend/artist Shane West. His daughter Saskia Carmichael Klunder, actress/dancer, lives in Montreal, Quebec, and Elizabeth Carmichael Klunder lives in Toronto, Ontario. Klunder also has a son, Willem Klunder, living in Europe (from a previous marriage).