Jan van der Zee - houtsnede 1/5 - eigendruk, gesigneerd - 1972 (groot) - Sold

Jan van der Zee drew from childhood. His drawing teacher at the HBS in Leeuwarden brought him into contact with Jan Mankes, with whom he took drawing lessons for some time. Van der Zee was educated at Academy Minerva (1919-1922) in Groningen, where he was taught by FH Bach and Willem Valk, among others. Van der Zee painted (gouache, oil) and watercolor landscapes, portraits, still lifes and cityscapes. He also made graphic art in the form of linocuts and woodcuts. Van der Zee belonged to the early Dutch constructivists. Although he abstracted his subjects within the figurative work, they never really became abstract.

In 1922 he founded the advertising agency Atelier Voor Artistic Advertising (AVAR) with Wobbe Alkema and Johann Faber, they rented studio space at the Noorderstationsstraat in Groningen. Van der Zee was a member of De Ploeg (1923-1948), then of Het Narrenschip. In 1958 he co-founded the Groningen painters group Nu. In 1965 he received the Cultural Prize of the province of Groningen. In 1986 the Fries Museum and the Groninger Museum held a major retrospective of his work.

Van der Zee was not only active as a painter, but also made monumental work. Examples are the stairs at the Naberpassage on the Grote Markt (1975, ) and the mosaic wall (1960) in front of the teacher training college on the Verzetvluchterslaan. He made a number of stained glass windows for the Martini Church.

The stairs on the Grote Markt had to make way for the construction of the Forum in 2013, but returned in 2023 as the eye-catcher of a new construction project on the Reitdiep.[