Artist

Biography of the Artist Jos Kivits

Adopted from Kivits family crest

Over 25 years of fine art. Welcome to the world of Master Artist. Jos Kivits, Painter of Magnificent neo-Classic landscapes and sumptuous still life's, in the manner of seventeenth century Dutch Old masters.

Born in Eindhoven the Netherland's, September 1945, Jos ( christened Jozef Wilhelmus Henrikus Cornelis ) was the youngest of 5 children. Jos comes from an old Dutch family who's tree goes back to the 13th century. His immediate family have been merchants since the 18 hundreds, and despite early leanings towards industrial chemistry, architectural draughtsman, and textile merchant, even a brief desire towards theology,- art was his siren call. Jos simply could not stay away from it. He took serious art studies from the age of 10: painting his first oil at age 12.

A student of the Dutch "Kunstnijverheid" School in the 1960's, Jos continued studies during the 1970's and 80's under the tutelage of The Netherland's welknown living artist, Cornelis Le Mair. This collaboration led to Jos receiving the diploma of Master Artist Still Life in 1989. (From the Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp in Belgium, through Cornelis Le Mair )

A look in his studio at Wahroonga with a painting in

progress and in the background a still life setup.

The collaboration had continued with visits of Cornelis le Mair to his New zealand and Sydney studio

For several years during the 1960's and 70's Jos also researched the techniques of the Dutch Old Masters. One long forgotten technique, developed by van Eyck brothers in the fifteenth century, involves the application of successive oil glaze layers between paint layers, to give depth to the painting. An arduous, not to mention hazardous technique, Jos uses it to perfection, in many of his still life pieces.

A painting in progress, left side is the actual set up, right side is the painting canvas. Note the artistic license as the painting is not a photographic image of the setup. No tricks or camera obscura are used in his work.

In 1973 Jos moved from his native country, The Netherlands, (often wrongly referred to as Holland) to New Zealand. Then in 1986, along with Lydia his wife, and their 4 children, ( Lis. Josh, Yahdah and Samuel ) he came to Sydney Australia to settle.

A lifetime of training, study and experience creating exquisite masterpieces has earned Jos a major international reputation. His work is much sought after, hanging in public and private collections throughout the world including several countries in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North and South America, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. Hong Kong, South Africa.

(extracts from Invitation of a solo exhibition at the Durning Laurence, Gallery Sydney Australia 1987)

Since 1977 his paintings have appeared on auctions in New Zealand and later in Australia and are recorded in "Australian Art sales digest" as well as in "Australian Art Auction records" and other Art Auction records. The earliest Auctions of his paintings took place in Auckland around 1977 with some at Cordie's, Deverueax & Cully and Walkers' Auctions. Often these where the result of deceased estates, partner break-ups or bankruptcy of the owners. Also at times people changed their collection, and of course some might have cashed in on the lucrative investment made on his work. It proved that Classic Art, and in particularly his work, found readily new homes or collectors, and more often than not with a good financial return.

This is particularly true with some cabinet pieces ( reasonable size paintings which feature ), and examples are found in the Australian Art sales digest. ( link to Aust. Art sales digest page ).

Still Life with Bottles, $4,005 oil, signed, 55 x 60 cm. International Art Centre Auckland 21/03/94, lot 75, Estimate: NZ$3,000-5,000

is a good example. This painting was bought by an Orewa Gentleman in 1979 at the "La Trobe gallery" in Takapuna New Zealand for $ 1000, and sold at auction in 1994 (15 years later) for $ 4005.

Other paintings knocked down for between $ 240 - $ 1150 where early small landscapes, for which the artist received in the mid 1970's as little as $ 50 each. These paintings are now realistically worth at least double what they fetched on auction.

Sometimes there are Auction houses who have not done their homework, and are cataloging them with some ridicules low estimates as in the case of "Lawson's" in Sydney where one appeared in their catalogue as:

Claret Jug, $2,090 oil on board, signed lower right, 49 x 60 cm. Lawsons Sydney 26/07/94, lot 168, Estimate: $200-400

This painting needless to say sold for 10x over its lowest estimate and should have been estimated more in the vicinity of $ 8,000 - 12,000. It popped up only a few months later in the same city at AAA, and was knocked down for 3x of what was paid at Lawsons to a phone-bid,only later to be re-sold in a Sydney Gallery for the proper price of $ 19,000. This Painting is currently valued at $ 35,000.

Although Kivits is not painting for any ones capital gain, nor guarantees any investment return, he sees it as the Art market which set the price.

A painting painted 10 years ago, does not have to be cheaper than a current one. But often when re-offered is sold for less than the current market value of a more recent creation. This is not always the case. One painting sold in the Netherlands in 1975 for NGL 2000 ( around NZ $2000) was resold by private treaty for NLG 20,000.

In conclusion it would be fair to say that the value of his paintings, what ever year it was painted in, would be according to similar quality works that are offered for a given price at current exhibitions, or are priced at on an individual bases in any gallery. Auctions being an exemption, as works are sold at execution prices and not always with the interest of the vendor in mind. The artist is totally removed from influencing or setting any price. In general a painting by a rule of thumb is worth twice of what it fetched on a bonafide auction. Also some Paintings have been sold for genuine Jos Kivits paintings which were not done by Kivits. I know of at least 2 such cases. You are more than welcome to have your work verified by sending a photo, and details of provencance free of charge to: Joshua Kivits PO Box 585 Wahroonga NSW 2076 Australia, as long as there is a self addressed envelope and a photo for our archieves.

There are some impressionist paintings about of mainly European farm scenes, signed with "Kasnar", which is a non-de-plume of Kivits used in the late 1970's.

He also painted an estimated 40 small size watercolours, mainly of New Zealand and Dutch landscapes.

His figure studies. nude studies, and portraits are very rare, as they were seldom exhibited.

The Artist name is Jos, not Joshua as in some record books , as Joshua is the name of his son.

Kivits never painted in acrylic, although preparations of boards and canvas was by an Acrylic based Gesso. For the main painting he always used oils, and on paper watercolours.

His signature has changed very little over the 25 years, and always has the distinct Classic appearance.

His work has officially been put into print in; "The pearl of great price", which painting and copyright was given to charity. An other batch of prints, of a landscape was later rejected by the artist, and were never officially fully issues, almost all copies were destroyed.

Some of the Brochures and place mats issued over the years have been framed by people, but were never issued as official authorized prints by the artist for framing purposes.

Three still lifes have been authorzied for limited edition print on stretched canvas of 100 each, however the issues are seamingly still pending. (copyright for 100 each to Ronald Coles)

His work has been reproduced as place mat's, and post cards, non of which was organized by the artist himself, although he might have received some royalties for them. All his work remain his copyrights, and may never be reproduced without the written concent of the artist, or his direct family.

A record and log has been kept, with most of the details of his paintings. although some are not always complete what the size is concerned. Not all paintings have a number on the back, but almost always bear his "other" signature under the title, on the reverse. A number for the paintings are kept in the log. Only 50% of the paintings in the log have photo's, we are hoping people will supply us with the other 50% for posterity sake.

There has never been a book printed on Kivits' work although in 1995 a beginning was made but due to the lack of a good publisher has not been pursued.

A total of only about 1850 works have been painted over this period of 25 years, which is a very low number in comparison to many contemporary artists, of which the average would be about 250 - 1000 a year. This is due to the nature of the time it takes to complete his work, and the toll it has taken on his physical well-being.

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Newspaper interview with "Jos Kivits", out of: "The Gelderlander" feb. 1999. By Hans Gulpen, in Dutch Click here

Or Interview with Peter van Vlerken from Eindhovens Dagblad on 20-september 2001

Click here