A possible biography of the artist could start as follows: until 1974 Jan Vercruysse was a poet, and the last line of his poetic can be summed up with the words ‘I don't want to talk about anything else but art’.
His first photographic works arose from the combination of language and image.
His sculptures seek to represent the inner space of the artist using an arsenal of codes and accessories that seek to capture what is not depictable, the vision of what beauty is: the idea of a space of art and for art is no longer an abstraction but appears in the world as a concrete image.
Jan Vercruysse
Jan Vercruysse (Ostend, Belgium, 1948 - Brussels, Belgium, 2018) first trained in law before turning to poetry and then the visual arts. Solo exhibitions include: Museum M, Leuven, Belgium (2009); Kunstmuseum aan Zee, Ostend, Belgium (2009); Centro Arti Visive Pescheria, Pesaro, Italy (2008); Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium (2001); The Netherlands National Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1994); Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy (1992); Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (1990 and 1997); Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland (1989); Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium (1988 and 1999); ARC - Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris, France (1986). In 1993 he represented Belgium at the 45th Venice Biennale, and in 2001 he was awarded the prestigious Flemish Culture Award for Visual Arts. In 2002 he participated in Turin’s permanent public project ‘Luci d’Artista’ with a work entitled Fontane luminose. Represented in prestigious public and private contemporary art collections in Europe and the United States, Jan Vercruysse is considered one of the most influential Belgian artists of his generation.
www.janvercruyssefoundation.com
Jan Vercruysse, Autoportrait, 1984