Willem Johan De Looper

Place: The Hague

Born: 1932

Death: 2009

Biography:

Willem Johan de Looper was an American abstract artist, and chief curator at The Phillips Collection. He was born in The Hague, Netherlands, and had a Montessori education. During the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, the family moved three times, once settling with a family in the countryside. After the war, de Looper became fascinated by American publications, most notably The New Yorker magazine. The articles on culture, music, advertising and arts inspired him to pursue a career in the arts. He moved to the US in the 1950s and followed his brother to Washington, D.C. He studied fine arts at American University and pursued painting and showed professionally in Washington, D.C., US and abroad from the 1960s through 2000s. He was a part of the Washington Color School movement and was known for his abstract expressionist paintings.