Artist statement
Georges Libbrecht’s etchings, drawings and paintings are based on two elementary principles. First: the intuition (the colour), and
second: the reason (the line, the construction). Georges’s art refers to the search of man for his place in the universe. It’s a process
of balancing, to find harmony, trying to live at peace with the world around him that is in motion. The artist etches, draws and paints a
poetic process that has a vague beginning and an unknown ending. It’s a continuous narrative, seized in cycles.
The artist is very aware of his short presence in this infinite time and space. The artist tries to understand his presence in space and
time, and intents to find coherence in the ‘world of things that happen’. It’s a lifelong search for answers. The aim is gaining insight in
the greater as well as the smaller elements. The artist calls them the macro and micro cosmos.
Through his search for knowledge and insight he encounters the doubt, symbolised mainly by the artwork titled: “Nada es verdao,
nada es mentira, todo depende del coral del cristal con que se mira.” (Nothing is true, nothing is a lie, everything depends on the
choir of the glass with which you are looking)
The artist realises that he is fluctuating between this macro and micro cosmos. Georges Libbrecht uses a wide spectrum to look at
the world. Above all, he is a painter, but he looks at things with the curiosity of an explorer and the scientific precision of a
meteorologist, a hydrographer, a chemist. He likes to observe insects and animals of all sizes. But also astronomy fascinates him.
The Renaissance man in the artist wants to absorb all he can. Though he realises that man has lost his central position in universe,
he still plays an important role. He is connected to everything around him. In his paintings, the colour is the feeling, the emotion. The
line, the construction is the contemplative process. This duality (symbolised in the crosses series) appears as two antipodes: the
vertical and horizontal axis’s of the cross, meeting in the centre, reaching harmony (e.g. China travels) Painting is a creative process,
an experiment that is captured in acrylic paint, oils and all kind of resins. It’s like alchemy, finding its origin in the old art of Flemish
painters like Van Eyck and Breughel.
Biography
Born 01.10.1931 in Flanders (Belgium), in the small village of Steenokkerzeel (Province of Brabant, near Brussels).
1936 Starts drawing nature, flowers, castles, airplanes, hot-air balloons, cars, etc.
1940-1945 During the Second World War he lives in the village of Kortenberg, opposite the small train station of the rail track
Brussels-Louvain.
He starts painting village scenes, like the station building and war airplanes at the airport?
Strolls around the fields and paints his first landscapes. Admires artists like Van Gogh.
1946 The artist studies at the 'athenaeum' of Brussels and meets artist Jules Lismonde and Marc Macke (Macke will later become
headmaster of the Royal Academy of Arts in Antwerp - Belgium) with whom the artist will trade his paintings for homework tasks.
1951 - 1953 Spends 2 years in West Germany in the military service.
He writes journalistic articles and is a freelance photographer for several national Belgian newspapers.
1957 Finishes the studies of surveyor and works at the hydrographical river and sea
services in harbour-city Antwerp - Belgium.
As a marine surveyor he measures, draws and updates about 1.700 hydrographical maps of the river Scheldt and the Flemish coast
area.
Joins the courses of town and country planning at the Royal Academy of Antwerp.
1959 Moves to the city centre of Antwerp where he marries Jeanine Rogier on the 29th august 1959.
1965 Joins the drawing courses at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp where he meets J. Van Ael and De Brouwer and the
etching-master René De Koninck.
Starts painting at the Academy of Berchem (Antwerp), where he paints and draws with S. De Buck, Mariman and Luc Cappaert.
1970-1980 Starts drawing and painting the 'Green period' and resides in his artists' refuge in the village of Kruibeke (in the Flemish
Waasland).
Meets the Spanish artist Olmos, painters Jan Smet, Van Overloop and Souvereyns.
1974 Starts working in the centre of Brussels at the Flemish department of town and country planning.
1984 Moves back to Kortenberg.
1989 Sets up drawing and painting courses in Kortenberg.
1988 - 1990 - 1992 Wins prize of artistic inhabitant of Kortenberg.
1990 Selected for painting prize of Westerlo and Maurits Naessens of Meise and Wolvertem.
1991-2001 Sets up the 'Kortenbergse Kunst Kabinetten' together with his wife Jeanine and art lover Jan Imbrechts.
1992 Wins prize Furament at Tervuren.
1994 10 years after moving from Antwerp to Kortenberg, a large workshop for drawing, etching and painting is build next to the house.
1999 Wins the Verba painting prize at Kapellen - Belgium.
2000 Wins the Prize 'Piet Stout' at Beveren Waas - Belgium.
2002 Wins first prize of fine art painting at the 15 th International art show of Libramont - Salon de l’Art International at Libramont.
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