Eben van der Merwe was born in Bloemfontein,  12  July 1932.

Career as Commercial  Artist:

Studied Literature and Philosophy at the University of the Orange Free State.  Left before completing degree to concentrate on career in Art.  Became Disigner, Lay-out Artist and Typographer, working for the Magazine section of Argus Publishing, Progressed to Hortors in Johannesburg to take up a position as Typographer Disigner.

Also worked as Visualiser- Typographer in Advertising for two years.  Returned to Argus Publishing after being offered the position of Art Director for the entire Magazine section. Pursued career in painting in spare time during this period.

Career as Lecturer:

Approached by Pretoria University in 1971 to take up a lectureship in Painting and Applied Design in the newly-formed Department of Fine Arts.  Left after 5 years to become fulltime painter and designer.  Invited regularly by various institutions to give illustrated lectures on Painting and related subjects.

Career as Painter:

Entirely self-taught as painter, started at the age of nine.  Exhibited in group-exhibitions from age fourteen.  Founder member of the Bloemfontein Group in 1958.

Exhibitions   (Shortened)

South Africa:

   1958:   Bloemfontein  Group,  Bloemfontein

   1959:   Bloemfontein  Group,  Johannesburg

   1960:   Bloemfontein  Group,  Kimberley

   1963:   Modern Contemporaries,  Pretoria

   1964:   South African Quadrenniale

   1965:   Art South Africa Today

   1966:   Republic Festival,  Pretoria

   1970:   National Gallery,  Bulawayo

   1971:   Festival Exhibition,  Cape Town

   1972:   Transvaal Academy

(List continues into eighties and nineties)

Overseas:

     1963:   Sao Paolo Biennale and New Orleans

     1964:   Venice Biennale

     1965:   Sao Paolo Biennale

     1968:   Venice Biennale  (Featured South African Painter with Cecil Scotnes, Graphics and Lucas Sithole : Sculptor)

Paintings in Collections

     Rembrandt  Collection

     Sasol  Collection

     ABSA  Collection

     Pretoria  Municipal  Gallery

     Hester Rupert Collection

     William  Humphries  Museum

     Olienhuis Museum Bloemfontein

     Cape Town National Gallery

Private Collections  in  South  Africa,  Europe,  USA  and  Japan.

Career as Designer  &  Builder of Coloured Glass Windows

Won competition for the design of a large Coloured Glass (Dalle-de-Verre)  window for the Provincial Administration Building in Bloemfontein.

Largest façade of coloured glass ever built. Subsequently designed and built works in this medium for a number of windows throughtout South Africa.

Painting  Commissions:

Completed a number of commissions for institutions and private individuals. Amongst others for:

     Landscapes for the Delville Wood Memorial Museum  (SA),  France

     Landscapes for the War Museum,  Bloemfontein

     Landscapes for the firm  CFG,  Ceres

     Seven portraits of South African Composers for SAMRO

     Portrait of the Chairman of the Council, University of the OFS

     Landscapes and Portraits for private Collections.

Undertook two study tours to Europe and UK  in 1966 and 1976.