Cornelius Zitman is an internationally acclaimed sculptor born on November 9th of the year 1926 in Leiden, The Netherlands. He just celebrated his 87th birthday a few weeks ago! Zitman’s family worked in the construction industry.
As a young man Zitman began lessons at the collegiate level when he was only fifteen years of age. Zitman enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Art located in the Hague. When he was finished with school it was mandatory he serve a few years in his countries military. Zitman disagreed with his countries ideas on what to do in Indonesia and fled Holland for Venezuela.
The artist found work as a draftsman for a construction company. He also found work in his new country as a furniture designer.
Cornelius Zitman also taught at the collegiate level at the Central University of Venezuela.
In this clip we visit a show featuring works of Cornelis Zitman:
During all this time he had continued to paint and began sculpting. Zitman would go on to win a National Award for Sculpture in 1951.
In the late 1950s Zitman decided to leave the rat race and give up business. He decided to just paint and sculpt and moved to the island of Grenada. Grenada is a great country consisting of around 110,000 people on 133 square miles. Grenada is located in the south of the Caribbean Sea.
In many works Zitman uses the human female figure for a basic idea, then will transform it so it is more of a mythological creature. Many of these myths or creatures directly from the culture of Venezuela.
Zitman has been awarded many international awards in his home country and abroad.
Corenlius Zitman was given the Order of the Netherlands Lion. Its the highest award a non military person can receive in his home country of Holland.
Price range information: The artist has done works in graphite and ink starting around $3,000 up to larger sized bronzes which can reach as much as $700,000.
I love his interpretation of the female figure. Very expressive!
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