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Hans Za (Johannes Wilhelmus Zandvoort) is a Dutch painter, born in The Hague in 1928. Considered one of the most prolific anamorphic artists of his time, Za currently resides in Cancun, Mexico where he maintains several studios. In his late childhood and adolescent life, Za witnessed firsthand the Nazi’s five-year occupation in The Netherlands, which culminated in the infamous "hunger winter" of 1944-1945. To this day, Za is grateful for the abundance of food and articles in markets and stores in the parts of the world where he is fortunate enough to live.

Early Years
Za expressed interest in painting from an early age but succumbed to pressure from his dominating father to forego art and study tropical agriculture. After a brief and unsuccessful stint in the agricultural world, Za was drafted into the army where he ended up as an ambulance driver from 1950 to 1952. His army experience deepened his commitment to art and after his honorable discharge he enrolled in night classes at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the Hague, working during the day as a full-time assistant in the Pedagogical Department of the Municipal Museum (Gemeentemuseum).

Emerging Style
Upon completing the five-year program of the Academy in only four years,(1956) Za received a scholarship from the French Government (Institut Descartes) for further study at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Uninspired by the staid, traditional programs, he attended the courses sporadically and used his time to connect with other artists and study the art in galleries and museums. He would spend ten years in Paris (1956-1966), holding several one-man shows(Galerie du Haut-Pavé and at the Cultural Institute of the Embassy of the Netherlands)while he developed his personal style and vision. Za was initially inspired by the dominant style of abstract expressionism of the Cobra group, which had disbanded in 1951. However, contrary to the Cobra style he used thin, almost transparent layers of paint. At the time, figurative and abstract artists were at odds and there was much rivalry. Abstract artists were also strictly divided as either “geometric", or “tachistes” (free-hand) artists. Za experimented with tachist paintings with whimsical titles like "extra-terrestrial landscape", inspired by the 1957 Sputnik launch. It was in a shop window that Za would find a new direction that radically changed his painting. Antique geographic maps displayed in a brightly lit bookstore in Paris caught his eye and Za became fascinated by the contrast between the random coastlines of continents and the geometric, starlike lines the mapmaker had drawn over it. He began introducing straight lines in his free abstract work, creating a series with titles like "Smoke emerging from a chimney" or simply "Opposition." The art critic J.J. Leveque warned him: "One can not do that", to which Za replied, "I just did." The maps brought Za to the realization that a painter had to rely on his own way of digesting visual impulses. He still feels indebted to Paris for much of his views on what is art.

Second Happening
A growing fascination with African Tribal Art lead him to Africa. He made several trips to Senegal and Mali between 1966 and 1968. In 1967 he was listed in the Larousse Dictionaire des Peintres Flamands et Holandais. In 1968 he accepted a teaching position in the USA at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb where he settled with his French wife and two young children. A 1970 promotion in academic rank led to a position at the College of Liberal Arts at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. For the next 21 years, Za would teach art at the College, retiring in 1992 with the rank of Professor Emeritus. In 1972, a wrongly positioned slide projector was to be the next inspiration for Za that would see his painting undergo a radical change. Za noticed that the sideways projection produced strange, stretched-out images of his photos of nudes. Looked at from the side, the images became realistic again. Using this known anamorphic effect his painting now became abstract shapes that become more realistic when seen from the side. Za created his paintings to be observed from the front as well as from the side, offering the viewer a more inter-active relationship with the works. While old anamorphic images were intended to be seen from one, fixed observation point, a Za painting must be experienced from various angles. This is why he likes to call his works neo-anamorphic. Throughout his academic career, Za continued to create many paintings and water colors, juggling his devotion to teaching and his passion for his own work. However, he had few showings during this period.

New Directions
In 1998, Za moved to the small fishing village of Puerto Morelos, Mexico, escaping the harsh winters of New York. In 2006, he moved to Cancun to set up his permanent studio where he focuses entirely on his art. Like many artists, Za routinely takes photos of his paintings in progress. Looking at shots of completed paintings and then going back in time to previous stages, he discovered that he sometimes should have stopped earlier when the work was more spontaneous and intuïtive. Therefore he now spends less time on each work, leaving more to the imagination of the viewer. While Za always felt creating painting is more important than exhibiting, he realizes now, as his body of work grows, that it is time to exhibit more frequently. He has ceated a website www.zapaintings.com and a demonstration video on youtube hanszapaintings. At the age of eighty-three he is enjoying excellent health and working constantly. He likes to quote Woody Allen regarding his latest movie. "If you have something to say and a good idea, the age is irrelevant." Za is currently preparing a one-man show at Kukulcan Plaza in Cancun's Hotel Zone which will last three months. It will be opened on April the 5th, 2012. There, for the first time, one can see his latest development, gyrating paintings.

Favorite Za Quotes
Someone said that my signatures were too fuzzy. I should stop painting and sell signatures. Someone said my paintings are not finished. I asked him what a finished painting looks like. I'm still waiting for a reply. Someone said my frames were not nice. I sent him to a frame shop.