Henk Pander

Dutch-American Artist

1937-2023

"In his almost six decades in Oregon Pander produced a prodigious amount of challenging, often raw and provocative but also beautiful work that was rooted in his deep classical training in the Netherlands, his childhood experiences of living under Nazi occupation during World War II, and his reactions to being an immigrant in the United States, where he felt himself at once a keen cultural observer and a restless outsider.

Pander was born Nov. 21, 1937, in the Dutch city of Haarlem, the oldest of ten children of Hendrica Smedes Pander and Jacob Pander, known professionally as Jaap Pander, a graphic artist, painter, and Bible illustrator who set an artistic example for the entire family.

Henk — Hendrik Pieter Pander — followed that example enthusiastically. He drew, with great skill, from a very young age, and as a student and young man was a rising star in the Dutch art world, training for a full five years at the prestigious Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and winning several commissions and prizes, including, in 1961, the Prix de Rome Silver Medal." 

Bob Hicks, Oregon Arts Watch

(Right: "Portrait of Henk Pander" by Pieter Pander)