Nikolaas Eekman - published folder "Imaginations - the Farmers"..

Nikolaas Mathijs Eekman (Brussels, 9 August 1889 – Paris, 13 November 1973) was a Dutch figurative painter and illustrator, also known in France, Belgium and the Netherlands as Nicolas Eekman, Nico Eekman and by the pseudonym Ekma.
Background
His father came from Zeeland Flanders. His painting style can be typified in three periods: expressionist from 1914 to the late 1920s, Flemish-realist at the beginning of the 1950s, and finally 'fantastique'.
Nicolas Eekman was born in Brussels in the house where Victor Hugo, then in exile, wrote Les Misérables.
At the age of 18, Eekman gave his first lecture in Brussels, entitled 'The Unknown Van Gogh', which in 1907 was not yet recognized by the general public. In 1912, he went to the first Van Gogh exhibition in Cologne.
After studying architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, he fled to the Netherlands before the First World War, and settled in the parsonage of Nuenen, where Bart de Ligt was the minister. Thirty years earlier, the Van Gogh family had lived in the same parsonage, and Vincent had painted The Potato Eaters there.
Until the end of the war, Eekman exhibited his work in the Netherlands, where major museums and collectors bought his works, mainly Helene Kröller-Müller.
Paris
In 1921 Eekman settled in Paris. He often met the Dutch and Belgian artists who lived there, such as Fred Klein (the father of Yves Klein), Piet Mondriaan, Cesar Domela, Georges Vantongerloo and Frans Masereel.
He became friends with gallery owner Jeanne Bucher, who exhibited his work in 1928, along with Mondrian's work.
This was the only time that Mondrian's paintings would be exhibited in a gallery in Paris.
Although Eekman was against abstract art and Mondrian was one of the pioneers, they would always remain very good friends.
During the 1930s, Eekman participated in group exhibitions all over the world, mainly in the United States, while his solo shows took place all over Europe. During the interbellum, Eekman was part of the artistic movement around Montparnasse. There he became friends with Jean Lurçat, Louis Marcoussis, Andre Lhote, Max Jacob, Moise Kisling, Marc Chagall, Picasso, Dali, Armand Nakache, Paul Signac, Jacques Lipchitz, Fernand Léger, Edouard Goerg, Max Ernst.
In 1937, at the International Exhibition in Paris, Eekman received a gold medal for his painting "La Pelote bleue" ("The Blue Ball"), which was purchased by the State for the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume.
At the beginning of World War II, he was wanted by the Nazis and settled in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in southwestern France, where he worked under the pseudonym Ekma.
In 1944, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels organised an exhibition that was visited by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium.
Eekman illustrated several books, including Les Destinées by Alfred de Vigny (1933), Contes d'un buveur de bière by Charles Deulin (1945), Tyl Uilenspiegel by Charles de Coster (1946) and L'Ane Culotte by Henri Bosco (1950).
In the 1950s and 1960s, Eekman's art was regularly exhibited in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland. He was awarded a prize at the International Exhibition in Deauville in 1956.
In 1961, Eekman was commissioned by Prof. Henri Griffon to create a fresco (2.50 x 1.40 m) of medicinal plants from all over the world for the drugstore at Paris-Orly airport.
A few months after a major retrospective at the Reflets gallery in Brussels, Nicolas Eekman died in Paris. He was buried in the cemetery of Ivry, in the southeast of Paris.
Legacy
His daughter Luce Eekman founded "Le Sillon Nicolas Eekman" in 1989, an organization to keep the memory of the artist alive. Several exhibitions were held in France and the Netherlands.