Wim Oepts artwork • painting • previously for sale A still life with onions in a basket and a white jug

Wim Oepts first earned his spurs in the Dutch art world with social-realist paintings. In 1938 he left for Paris where he had painting lessons from Emile-Othon Friesz and became acquainted with the work of Pierre Bonnard and André Derain. There he came to the conclusion that colour was the very essence of painting. This led to a visit to the South of France and his resulting paintings of villages and Mediterranean landscapes are striking for their colourful palette. After 1945 Oepts often worked with violet, bright yellow and cobalt blue, in search of a compromise between figuration and abstraction. In the early seventies his paintings reached their zenith. Oepts had been able to find the correct balance between monumentality and detail.