Jos Letschert (1948) is a Dutch artist who lives and works in Germany. He received his professional training at the Kunstakademie (College of Arts) in Amersfoort, the Netherlands.

He attained his doctorate in social sciences from the University of Utrecht, and until the middle of 2010 he was the director of the research department of the National Curriculum Institute of the Netherlands in Enschede. Parallel thereto, he taught at the University of Twente (NL) as professor for educational policy. In June 2010 he became an emeritus, and since then has been working as a freelance artist.

Jos Letscher draws small, bizarre portraits and figures, as well as landscapes and flowers. He paints large abstract and representational pictures in acryl, and different mixed techniques. His style he describes himself  as “intuitive expressionism”.

His abstract paintings are either “impromptus” or “elaborations”. “Impromptus” are more or less improvised compositions, aesthetic researches into structure, balance and depth of surface. “Elaborations” are intuitive creations, but nevertheless preconceived and associatively elaborated networks of pictorial elements and concepts, such as: point-line-surface-form-colour-texture-rhythm-space-contrast-parallelity-reduction-relationship-interdependance-combination-proportion-interpretation.

His women he paints on relatively large canvasses (1.60 x 1.20). Almost always, the women are portrayed in three-quarter representation. The views are chosen deliberately, and are used to achieve increased directness and dynamics. Although the figures are limited by the pictorial space, for the viewer the space is limitless. The female figures are almost shown in isolation, which means that only a very few modifiers are added – perhaps a banister or a tapestry. The women are self-confident and present but, per se, do not represent today’s Western idea of a woman. What is intended, is a selective perspective of striking, sometimes almost masked characters on the stage of the 21st century: headstrong, fashion conscious, elegant, refined – a contemporary ‘Commedia dell’arte’.