KEES SALENTIJN was born in Amsterdam in 1947
He is among the Netherlands’ most prominent painters. Drawings in pencil, ink, brush, gouache, acrylic paint on canvas, collage or a combination of all of these with a diversity of graphics. Kees Salentijn studied at the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in Amsterdam, graduating in free art.

Salentijn lives and works alternately in Amsterdam, Venlo and Spain. He produces paintings, works on paper, graphics and ceramics and his figures emerge in a bright mixture of colour. They experience their adventures with an almost infantile amazement. Salentijn applies collages to lend a certain estrangement to his works. The freedom and pleasure of drawing are clearly discernable. The initial inspiration leading to his mature style came from post-war American art, including Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Tom Wesselman, Arshile Gorky, Adolph Gottlieb, and above all Dutchman Willem de Kooning. It also came from Spanish painters such as Antoni Tapies, Antonio Saura, and later Manalo Millares. One of the characteristics of the Dutch artist Kees Salentijn is the multiple use of material. Salentijn developed a personal style that combined the expressionist, painterly swat with smaller but equally expressionist marks that are quick and slightly nervous but sure. Salentijn, wrote Leo Duppen, the former director of The Netherlands's CoBrA Museum, draws like a painter and paints like a draftsman. Combining vigorous painting with often childlike imagery, Salentijn's work eventually placed him in the Northern European, post-war CoBrA tradition of strongly expressionist, abstracted art that contained representational elements. Salentijn's increased use of figuration in the 1990s confirmed this link. His work is in several European museums. In addition to the 1982 Chicago Art Fair, his work has been represented at major European art fairs, including Art Fair Basel, TEFAF Maastricht, Kunstmesse Cologne and KunstRAI Amsterdam.