Maurice Wyckaert (Brussels 1923-1996)
"Every landscape tells a story"

"A room with a view - Met een doorkijk" ​1968, oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm
Provenance : Galerie Carrefour - Marcel Stal, Brussels
AVAILABLE, call 02 539.23.09 or mail group2gallerybrussels@gmail.com

"Sous-bois" 1990, Charcoal drawing, 100 x 120 cm
The artist made only 3 large drawings of this kind.
​AVAILABLE, Call 02 439.23.09 or group2gallerybrussels@gmail.com

"The waterfall" 1976,  Oil on canvas
SOLD

"On the spot" (Sur le Vif) 1989, Oil on canvas
​Private collection

Maurice Wyckaert ​(Brussels 1923-1996) was undoubtedly one of the most influential and talented belgian artists of his generation. He was educated at the Academy of Brussels and started painting expressionistic still lifes in the style of Jean Brusselmans. Later he found inspiration in the work of William Turner and James Ensor and their ideas about luminism. In 1955 the artist started to lyrically abstract interpret his environment, with influences of Eastern calligraphy. His works evolved to a dynamic abstract combination of attractive colors, which harmoniously shape a free interpretation of landscapes. Wyckaert was actively involved in several art movements and became co-founder of Belgian art magazines De Meridiaan and Taptoe Brussels (1955). He was also a member of Présence (1949) and the Situationist International movement of Guy Debord (SI). He was befriended with several CoBrA-members, especially with danish artist Asger Jorn.​
Wyckaert's paintings strike by the richness and freshness of their colors, which vary infinitely depending on whether they are lit by the sun or darkened by the passage of clouds. During their journey around the earth, colors change in tone and temperature: green turns black, blue becomes purple, orange turnes into red, yellow takes on shades of ocher. The dark green of the forests, the golden yellow of the wheat fields, the azure blue of the sky, the vermilion red of the fruit trees, all these colors are in constant movement, blown by the wind. Flemish poet and close friend Hugo Claus​ called them "turbulent landscapes".
Wyckaert led a nomadic life and moved many times, eager to discover new horizons and people which inspired him. He participated in the Venice and Sao Paulo Biennials. In 2018-2019 the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium paid tribute to the artist with the retrospective "Inner Landscapes". Group 2 Gallery, who organized in 2010 a one-man show ​​"Landscapes revisited", has been promoting relentlessy Wyckaert's oeuvre and has got several iconic works in its permanent collection. Feel free to contact us by mail or by phone for more information.

 

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