Livinus van de Bundt

Livinus van de Bundt (5 March 1909 – 11 October 1979) was a Dutch artist, who called himself Livinus. Initially a painter and graphic artist, he was the founder of an art academy and later became a pioneer of light art and video art.

Life and career Livinus Arie Cornelis Jan van de Bundt was born 5 March 1909 in Zeist.

Livinus started painting aged 14. From 1929 to 1931 he worked for Koninklijke Begeer. In 1937 he went to Paris to study with Stanley Hayter at Atelier 17 for a year. In 1947 he founded the Vrije Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague and remained its director until 1964. His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics.

He started working with light, using a variety of materials. His chronopeintures contained illuminated pieces of colored plastic. The pair had a daughter, Livina van de Bundt, and a son, Jeep van de Bundt, who became an artist, musician and later a classic car dealer.

In 1970, while on a visit to Intermedia in Vancouver, Livinus started experimenting with video. He produced several video art projects, together with his son.

A Chronopeinture (1964) as well as several black and white graphical works by Livinus are in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Light Carillon (1967). Placed on the roof of a municipal office building in Arnhem, this was an irregularly shaped, 12 meter high, concrete structure, illuminated in a dynamically changing pattern of colors, The lights were switched off during the 1973 oil crisis to save electricity, and would never function again. Despite protests the installation was demolished in 1998. Moiré (1975) 6:12 Percussie VI (1977) 2:13

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Livinus van de Bundt schildert met licht 13 August 1965 – 24 October 1965Gemeentemuseum, Arnhem

De Vluchtkoffer van Livinus 15 January 2011 – 6 February 2011GEMAK, The Hague

LIVINUS – for the FUTURE 17 December 2021 – 23 January 2022M HKA, Antwerp

Group exhibitions Kunst-Licht-Kunst 25 September 1966 – 4 December 1966Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Classic Video Art 21 October 2017 – 10 December 2017Museum Hilversum

Awards Van de Bundt was awarded the 1964 Sikkens Prize for his fotopeintures. In 1965 he received the Soclair prize for his Optochrome constructie variabel 40 b 3.