Casper Faassen

Casper Faassen is a young, up-and-coming talent in the Dutch art world. He was born on December 23, 1975, in Leidschendam. Casper grew up in Leiden, where he developed his fascination and admiration for the great masters and his passion for “credren” at an early age. To his parents’ surprise, he painted Rembrandt’s *The Night Watch*—by the “Leiden native”—on the wall of his childhood bedroom. Casper translated his daily experiences into cabinets full of comic strips, sketches, and paintings. During this period, however, his work was always imbued with a touch of “realism.” Works from his early years still reveal his lack of understanding of the abstract. His curiosity about art and his ambition to create are, to this day, the driving forces behind his work.

After high school, Casper Faassen traveled through the United States in search of adventure and inspiration. His life on the streets imbued him with a passion for America’s multicultural society: the variety and vibrancy of his impressions influenced the work he produced in the United States. At the same time, he visited museums and exhibitions whenever possible to admire the works of his great role models in person.

Once back in the Netherlands, Faassen decided to study the science behind marketing and communication at the University of Amsterdam. In his work, it is primarily emotion that drives him, and that is something that is practically impossible to teach, according to Casper regarding his decision not to pursue an art education. Instead, he moved into a studio in the “Tussen de Bogen” artists’ complex in Amsterdam. Here, he has the freedom to further develop his painting. Every spare minute, Faassen satisfies his need to create: clearly hovering between Impressionism, Realism, and more abstract movements. Faassen experiments freely.

Different techniques, different materials, but always with spontaneity and color as the common thread. Over time, influenced in part by his great role model Pablo Picasso, Casper Faassen developed two clearly recognizable styles of his own: the more classical figurative nudes and the colorful animal figures.

Highlights from 2003 include the screen-print series commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science; his second-place finish behind Corneille in the Artist of the Year competition; and his selection as a “descendant of Rembrandt” to exhibit at the Rembrandt Gala in Huis ter Duin.