Dutch artist Loek de Winter was born in Amsterdam in 1949 and in latter years gave birth to a new art form, Naturist Art. This isn’t a new style of “nature morte”, but rather one associated with the naturist lifestyle. We therefore had no choice but to interview him and find out all we could about this man and his art.
Although nudes have been used in art for thousands of years, de Winter explains how Naturist Art differs: “Naturism is a lifestyle in harmony with nature, expressed through social nudity, and characterized by self-respect of people with different opinions and of the environment…The Artist gets his inspiration from the naturist lifestyle. Naturist art concerns the tension between the naturist and his or her surroundings. It is not that the naturist by definition needs to be nude. Nude Art concerns naked people. Naturist Art is therefore more specific.”
De Winter first became a naturist eight years ago, alongside his wife Annette, during a holiday in northern Germany. “It wasn’t strange or uncommon for us. We visited saunas and there are a lot of nude beaches in the Netherlands”, he explains.
Photo courtesy of Loek de Winter. Copyright Loek de Winter.
De Winter’s project has received a lot of attention from galleries, artists and nudists alike. To wit, his web site receives around 1,500 visitors a day, and now boasts the “Nude Artists Directory of the Benelux”, which counts on the participation of 67 other artists from the region, all of which have benefited from the connection. The artists are from Belgium, Luxembourg and Holland, and include photographers, painters and sculptors. De Winter hopes that all the artists in the group will one day do an exhibition together.
De Winter prefers to draw rather than paint, and elected to use techniques and materials similar to that used by the great masters. In particular, he extensively studied Vincent van Gogh’s methods, creating original art that appears to be from the hand of that artist, which you can admire on his other web site, this one dedicated to his studies of the Dutch master [see link below].
The artist’s work will next be exhibited in April in the city of Gouda, Netherlands. You can also view photos of his work on his web site [see link below], and even purchase original works online.
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