Livinus van de Bundt

Livinus van de Bundt in 1964, at the Sikkens Prize awards ceremony. Photo Joop van Bilsen/Anefo.

Livinus Arie Cornelis Jan van de Bundt was born 5 March 1909 in Zeist.[1] His father was Jan van de Bundt (1887–1970), his mother Sijgje Cornelia van der Vlies (1885–1961). Livinus had two sisters, Corry and Kiki.[3]

Livinus started painting aged 14.[4] From 1929 to 1931 he worked for Koninklijke Begeer.[5] He enrolled at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague in 1932, but left prematurely in 1934 after a number of conflicts.[5] In 1937 he went to Paris to study with Stanley Hayter at Atelier 17 for a year.[1][4]

A 1938 exhibition of his abstract work was not well received, provoking him to destroy his work.[6][4] Aged 30 he gave up painting, unable to achieve the brilliance he envisaged.[6][4] For several years he produced only graphic work in black and white.[6]

During World War II Livinus van de Bundt applied his graphic skills to forge passports.[7] In 1947 he founded the Vrije Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague and remained its director until 1964.[8][2] His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics.[9]

He started working with light, using a variety of materials. His chronopeintures contained illuminated pieces of colored plastic.[4] Livinus' secretive luminodynamical machine, built in the 1950s from lenses, bulbs and electronic components, enabled the operator to generate color effects using a keyboard.[6][4] He built a drum kit which triggered light effects when hit.[6]

Van de Bundt married Mieke van der Burgt (18 April 1917–9 June 1979), herself an artist working in graphics, ceramics and textiles.[10] The pair had a daughter, Livina van de Bundt,[11] and a son, Jeep van de Bundt, who became an artist, musician and later a classic car dealer.[12][13]

In 1970, while on a visit to Intermedia[14] in Vancouver, Livinus started experimenting with video. He produced several video art projects, together with his son.[4]

Livinus van de Bundt died 11 October 1979 in The Hague.[1]

Incomplete list of extant and lost works:

The concrete structure of Livinus' Light Carillon, on the roof of the office building in the background, during nearby demolition work in 1997.

• A Chronopeinture (1964) as well as several black and white graphical works by Livinus are in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.[15]

• Light Carillon (1967). Placed on the roof of a municipal office building in Arnhem, this was an irregularly shaped, 12 meter high, concrete structure, illuminated in a dynamically changing pattern of colors,[6] with the changing colors announcing the time every quarter of an hour. The installation was built around the building's concrete elevator shaft, with protruding strips covered in fluorescent paint. Placed around it were 216 red, green, yellow, and violet spotlights, each 150W, which were activated by switches, controlled by a punched tape.[16]
  The lights were switched off during the 1973 oil crisis to save electricity, and would never function again. Despite protests the installation was demolished in 1998.[11]

• Several video works produced by Livinus with his son Jeep are in the LIMA-collection:
  • Discovisie: C.R.M. Stroken 1, Discovisie: C.R.M. Stroken 2, and Discovisie: C.R.M. Stroken 3 (1975), 3:00 each[17]
  • Moiré (1975) 6:12[18]
  • Percussie VI (1977) 2:13[19]

Van de Bundt was awarded the 1964 Sikkens Prize for his fotopeintures.[24]

• van de Bundt, Livinus; de Rooij, Marie Jeanne (2011). De vluchtkoffer van Livinus. GEMAK & Vrije Academie Den Haag. ISBN 9789081673310.

• Louis Bertrand Castel, who in 1725 invented the ocular harpsichord.
• Thomas Wilfred, created light art which he called lumia.

• Media related to Livinus van de Bundt at Wikimedia Commons
• Lampe, George (13 March 1965). "Brief aan Livinus". Vrij Nederland (in Dutch). Retrieved 16 February 2019.