Eugene Brands studied at the Amsterdamse Kunstnijverheidsschool. Having worked for a brief period in the advertising industry he decided to become an artist.
Brands was already producing surrealistic abstract work before the war. At the time he was very interested in the work of Kandinsky and Mondrian.
After the war he became a member of the Experimentele Groep Holland which later gave rise to CoBrA. Brands was sometimes included in their exhibitions but was never actually a member of this group. Later he did join the Vrij Beelden and Creatie groups.
His work is influenced by interest in primitive cultures and later by CoBrA group motifs. His intuition has always allowed colour to play a greater role than form.