Herman de Vries

De Vries began making art on the theme of "nature and plants" in 1953. He began painting in the late 1950s. One of his installations, from May 2002, is an explicit critique of Saint Boniface and his felling of the Donar Oak: he planted, on the bank of the Rhine in Düsseldorf, a 7-metre oak tree surrounded by a palisade of cast-iron, gold-tipped spears. Along the palisade is written, in Latin, wynfrith me caesit--herman me recreavit ("Wynfrid cut me down, herman resurrected me"). In 1993, as part of that year's World Horticultural Exposition in Stuttgart, de Vries created Sanctuarium, a small forest also enclosed by a circular palisade consisting of gold-tipped spears, in this case of wrought iron. His intention was for it to remain undisturbed, but the city parks department cleared the land in 2018 as part of a policy of periodic pruning. He and two other artists said they would take legal action against the city. A similar installation by de Vries in Münster is enclosed by a brick wall.

The recorded working language is Dutch and English. Work by Herman de Vries is recorded in the collections of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Tate, Kröller-Müller Museum, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Groninger Museum. Distinctions recorded are Oeuvre Awards BKVB and Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.

Herman de Vries is recorded as having received Oeuvre Awards BKVB and Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.