Theo Kurpershoek, born in Rotterdam, completed the evening program at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in the 1930s.

During the day, he worked as an advertising illustrator. In 1948, he, along with Hans van Norden and Nicolaas Wijnberg, founded the painters' group De Realisten in response to the growing attention from museums and critics towards abstract art and Cobra.

Like other classical-modern Dutch artists, including Otto B. de Kat and Friso ten Holt, Kurpershoek aligned himself with the European modernist tradition of the 20th century.