Juul (Julius Hermann) Neumann joined Berend Hendriks for a weekly drawing class with Ger Gerrits after his graduating in 1936. Here he also came into contact with Harry van Kruiningen. During the war, Neumann and Hendriks shared a workshop in Amsterdam, where he produced his first paintings. In 1945, Neumanns language of forms hovered between figurative and abstract under the influence of cubism (Braque). Neumann took, despite his regular job, as much as he could part in the exhibitions of Vrij Beelden, Creatie and later on the Liga Vrij Beelden with abstract oils.
In 1946 he joined De Onafhankelijken with Hans Ittmann. From 1949 onwards he called his works compositions and started numbering them. Typical for both his paintings and his wood carvings from these years are the limited
