Jan Nieuwenhuys Jan in his studio in 1952 The Dutch painter Jan Nieuwenhuys was one of the early active founders of the Dutch Experimentalists group ( Reflex ) that later became part of CoBrA . Jan lived and worked his whole life in Amsterdam from 1922 until his death in 1986 . Around the age of 14 he and his two year older brother decided to become painters . From 1938 to 1941 he attended the 'Rijksnormaalschool ' in Amsterdam . Later in the Second World War he also took lessons at the Rijksacademie in Amsterdam . At the Rijksacademie he met Karel Appel and Corneille . In the Second World War Jan painted almost only clowns , nudes and couples making love . Just after the war he started painting fantasy animals like aggressive cocks , cats and bulls . He and his brother Constant had many arguments about his paintings . During the war Constant himself painted only Catholic scenes like piëtas and Maria portraits or still lifes and thought that Jan chose his subjects too lightly . In 1948 Appel , Elburg , Kouwenaar , Wolvekamp , Corneille , Constant , Brands , Rooskens and Jan Nieuwenhuijs founded the Experimentele Groep Holland that a few months later became the European group CoBrA. Jan was in his paintings of this period influenced by dreams , children 's drawings , the artistic expressions of mentally handicapped people and primitive art . Animals such as birds and cats play a leading role in most of his works , along with fantastic creatures and beings that are made up of a combination of human , animal and mechanical elements . A lot of the creatures balance on a rope or wear boats as a hat . Jan was soon disappointed in the members of the CoBrA group , some of them were more interested in fame than being an activist . He could not stand the fighting that was going on between the members and so he left the group in the middle of 1949 . Some other members also left , but they later rejoined for the great exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum . In 1964 he said in an interview : `` The group was not founded as an exposition group but as a group of activists . We wanted to put an effort into that , to fight against the softness in art at the time and using our imagination to change that . Regrettably I must ascertain that many of the Experimentalists of that day also became esthetics . Everything official stops to be combatant . I think that work of some of them look very dormant these days '' . Jan went his own way , disillusioned , and concentrated only on his work . His paintings became more and more liberated and he experimented with different materials like fluorescent paint and everything he could get his hands on . Everything could become a painting . In an interview from 1964 he says : `` I start with my material and my color . With that I express myself . From the material I come to my subject and that is maybe contrary to what painters did in earlier days . I paint the way I write , the way I laugh . That is why I paint differently all the time , because my moods change . That’s the way I feel . `` `` As a painter I don’t want to paint a particular situation . I am not abstract , not really non-figurative . I try to be expressive and therefore I need certain images . Today I am in China , tomorrow in Paris , after tomorrow some other place . We are confronted every day with what happens in the world . You’re living on a specific spot , but also in the whole world . It’s maybe therefore that we become so ignorant and hard , because we experience too much . Hunger , war . That particular situation doesn’t mean anything anymore . `` From the same interview : `` I wish , if they see my work later on , that they can see the twentieth century . The artist must give his time a suit . And it doesn’t matter if he is an architect , poet or painter . In abstract painting I miss the beat of this time , the rudeness . We , the people of today we are living with the fear of an atom bomb . The abstracts are building only a superficial world for you . `` External links The Jan Nieuwenhuijs Foundation Categories : Dutch painters In other languages : Nederlands 