Jan Wiegers

Who was Jan Wiegers?

Jan Wiegers was a Dutch expressionist painter.

Wiegers was educated as a sculptor at the Academie Minerva in Groningen, but he also studied painting at the Academies of Rotterdam under A. H. R. Van Maasdijk and The Hague under Frederik Jansen.

Having left the academies he produced paintings, sculptures, wood-carvings and furniture for churches throughout Germany and Switzerland. In 1917 he became a member of the group of artists called De Ploeg, a similar group to Die Brücke but with a tendency towards abstraction.

During a stay in the Davos in 1920, he became friends with the German Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner who became a strong influence on his art.

In 1934 he moved to Amsterdam and co-founded the magazine De kroniek van kunst en kultuur. In 1953 he was appointed professor of the National Academy.