Albert Fiks (Ebersfeld (D) 1908-1945 Laren) was born in Germany and grew up in a foster family in Amersfoort after his father died. The young Albert had a great talent for drawing. In 1926 he became a member of the Amersfoortsche Kunstkring, where he came into contact with various artists such as Jakob Nieweg and Jo Koster. First he was a house painter and advertising artist, but Fiks was such a special talent and in the 1920s he dared to choose the life of an artist, but not completely because he had difficulty marketing his work.
His style of painting developed in a short time from realistic to cubist and even abstract. He painted and etched portraits, still lifes and landscapes. In 1935 he had his first solo exhibition. In 1939 the artist moved to Laren. He met Bart van der Leck, Dirk Koning, Charley Toorop and Lou Loeber, who also inspired him. The expressionist peasant painter Constant Permeke also 'helped' him in solving painterly problems. Fiks did not undergo a linear development, but sometimes worked purely realistically and at other times cubist or abstract. He must have copied the shapes of two-dimensional surfaces, but with space, from Van der Leck.
The climax in Albert Fiks' oeuvre is formed by the cubist still lifes that the painter produced in the 1930s. During the war he did little work. He died in harness, too young, from erysipelas and blood poisoning, which means his qualitative oeuvre is only small.
In 2007, Museum Flehite dedicated an exhibition to him and published a monograph showing that he was truly an innovator of art (in the Netherlands). Only when Van der Leck and Mondriaan received recognition was Fiks rediscovered. And rightly so as far as Femke is concerned.
