Livinus van de Bundt (5 March 1909 â 11 October 1979) was a Dutch artist, who called himself Livinus. Initially a painter and graphic artist, he was the founder of an art academy and later became a pioneer of light art and video art.
Livinus Arie Cornelis Jan van de Bundt was born 5 March 1909 in Zeist. His father was Jan van de Bundt (1887âÂÂ1970), his mother Sijgje Cornelia van der Vlies (1885âÂÂ1961). Livinus had two sisters, Corry and Kiki.
Livinus started painting aged 14. From 1929 to 1931 he worked for Koninklijke Begeer. He enrolled at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague in 1932, but left prematurely in 1934 after a number of conflicts. In 1937 he went to Paris to study with Stanley Hayter at Atelier 17 for a year.
A 1938 exhibition of his abstract work was not well received, provoking him to destroy his work. At age 30 he gave up painting, unable to achieve the brilliance he envisaged. For several years he produced only graphic work in black and white.
During World War II Livinus van de Bundt applied his graphic skills to forge passports. In 1947 he founded the Vrije Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague and remained its director until 1964. His work was also part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics.
He started working with light, using a variety of materials. His chronopeintures contained illuminated pieces of colored plastic. Livinus' secretive luminodynamical machine, built in the 1950s from lenses, bulbs and electronic components, enabled the operator to generate color effects using a keyboard. He built a drum kit which triggered light effects when hit.
Van de Bundt married Mieke van der Burgt (18 April 1917âÂÂ9 June 1979), herself an artist working in graphics, ceramics and textiles. The pair had a daughter, Livina van de Bundt, and a son, Jeep van de Bundt, who became an artist, musician and later a classic car dealer.
In 1970, while on a visit to Intermedia in Vancouver, Livinus started experimenting with video. He produced several video art projects, together with his son.
Livinus van de Bundt died in The Hague on 11 October 1979.
Incomplete list of extant and lost works:
Van de Bundt was awarded the 1964 Sikkens Prize for his fotopeintures. In 1965 he received the Soclair prize for his Optochrome constructie variabel 40 b 3.