Karel Arkema - Litho, title, "Two figures".

Karel Arkema (1901-1964) was born in Appingedam, where his father had a painting company. After finishing trade school, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Minerva in Groningen. There he was taught by artists including Franciscus Hermanus Bach and Arnold Willem Kort.
In 1955, at the invitation of the Ministry of Education, Arts and Sciences and in the context of a Belgian-Dutch exchange, he stayed for a month in Bouillon in the Ardennes. He worked in Paris and later on the Riviera together with his wife Henny Arkema.

Karel initially painted realistic expressionistically, although he was also strongly influenced by the expressionism of the artists' circle De Ploeg of which he was a member. He was constantly searching for his own style. In the last years of his life he searched for this in the non-figurative and abstract, often starting from a very personal expression, in particular of how he saw nature and the city. In that respect he had a lot in common with his contemporary and fellow artist Jan van der Zee, who was also a member of De Ploeg.