Sculptor, painter and biologist herman de vries has been active as an artist since the 1950s. In the beginning he joined the Nul movement, a Dutch group of informal artists, but he soon went his own way. In 1970 de vries moved to Eschenau in Germany and nature and Eastern philosophies became his great sources of inspiration. He gets the material for his artworks from nature, such as wood, leaves, cotton and plants. de vries made collages, experimental poems, mobiles, optical objects, sculptures and reliefs. In 1998 he received the Oeuvre Prize from the BKVB Fund. His work can be found in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Museum Kröller-Müller in Otterlo and the Haags Gemeentemuseum, and in many foreign museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.