Paul Overhaus (Amsterdam, 1935 – 2014) was a Dutch artist who became known as a painter, sculptor and graphic artist. He studied at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and continued his education at the National Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp. From 1968 to 1987 he was a lecturer at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.
Overhaus' extensive oeuvre includes paintings, pastels, gouaches, drawings and woodcuts, with portraits and landscapes as the main themes. His work is characterised by the use of large surfaces, sometimes contained in contours, in which shapes and residual shapes search for balance in an exciting game and fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Abstraction and symbolism, expressed in a broad gesture, contribute to the substantive expression of a great natural event.
About his connection with the Dutch landscape he said: "The beauty of this country is the great horizontality, the monumentality, the tidiness and above all the grandeur." He described his first encounter with the sea in the autumn of 1945 as follows: "There are things that always stay with you. That you cannot even forget. In the autumn of '45, about six months after the war, my father took me to the beach. I had never been there before and that moment will always stay with me. After that last dune, suddenly that sea in front of you. That tension, that incredible feeling of vastness. That sea that is never the same for a moment, that changes every time in a mini-second."
Overhaus' work was exhibited in renowned galleries and art manifestations, and he gained recognition from both critics and art lovers. His legacy remains a source of introspection and admiration, and his contribution to the visual arts is celebrated worldwide.
