In 1909, Pierre-Louis Flouquet comes to Brussels with his parents. In 1914, he enrols at the Brussels academy, where he studies until 1919. In that same year, he shares a studio with René Magritte. The first works by Flouquet show a strong influence of Cubism and Futurism, which he learns about in 1920 during his military service.

Back in Brussels he establishes the publication 7 Arts with Pierre Bourgeois and Karel Maes, in which they defend Modernism. In 1925, Flouquet exhibits in the famed gallery Der Sturm in Berlin, where Marthe Donas also displays her work. Also in 1925, along with Marcel-Louis Baugniet and Jean-Jacques Baillard, he establishes the group L’Assaut. Beginning in 1928, his work evolves into a figurative expressionism, but at the start of the 1930’s, he stops with painting and primarily occupies himself as a critic, architectural journalist and writer. In 1930, along with Pierre Bourgeois, Maurice Carême, Georges Linze, Edmond Vandercammen and Géo Norge, he establishes Journal des Poètes.

Source: House of Literature, Antwerp

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Marc Eemans comes into contact with the German Romantic, and Wagner in particular at the Royal Athenaeum in Brussels. He emerges as a well-read intellectual painter and writer. Via Geert van Bruaene, he meets Paul van Ostaijen, among others. As an artistic painter he experiments originally with a sense of the constructivist-abstract. He reads the first surrealistic manifest of André Breton and in 1925 aligns himself with the surrealistic artists Dali and Magritte, with whom he holds communal exhibitions.

In 1930 Eemans debuts as a poet with Vergeten te worden: 10 lijnvormen, beïnvloed door 10 woordvormen. He is taken by the influence of Symbolism and calls his poetry ‘Gnostic Surrealism’. In 1938 he publishes the volume of poetry Wola’s visioen.

His artistic and political stances during World War II lead to a break with Magritte and others. Because of collaboration, he is sentenced to eight year’s of prison term. In 1975, he loses a slander case about this from Marcel Mariën. 

Eemans writes, in addition to poetry volumes, works about diverse subjects, such as modern painting and architecture. He publishes Anthologie de la mystique aux Pays-Bas.

Source: House of Literature, Antwerp

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During the time between the wars, Floris Jespers is reckoned with the modernistic painting in Belgium. During and shortly after World War I, he belongs, along with his brother and sculptor Oscar Jespers and the Dadaist Paul Joostens, to the circle around the writer-critic Paul Van Ostaijen, who absorbs the influence of European Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism and Futurism. In the 1920’s, he associates with the groups Sélection and Centaure that are operating in Brussels. Critics at home and abroad speak of him in the same breath with Permeke, De Smet and Van den Berghe as leading ‘Flemish Expressionists’. His ‘post-expressionistic’ work is particularly varied by his mastery in various media. In addition to oil paintings, numerous drawings, etchings and paintings (behind glass) arise in which regional themes are interchanged with circus scenes. In his satirically inspired city themes he often applies styles with an art-deco inclining formalism. The ‘anxious 1930’s’ bring along a change: Jespers makes a turnaround towards traditional painting. The series ‘Flemish and Walloon landscapes’, still lives and portraits form a return to a ‘specialist’ art of painting, while he still also provides a contribution to the revival of monumental art through his tapestry designs for the world exhibitions in Paris and New York. Shortly after WWII Jespers experiences a new highpoint with a connection again with the international modernism, subsequently regenerating himself in the 1950’s with the ‘Congolese beauty’.

Source: House of Literature, Antwerp

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In 1882, Prosper de Troyer is a student of the Sint-Lucasschool in Oostakker. He receives lessons from various sculptors in Ghent and meets Gustave van de Woestijne there. Up until 1909 he follows evening courses at the Academy for Visual Arts in Mechelen and there meets Rik Wouters in 1914. During WWI, he participates in the exhibitions of the art circle Doe Stil Voort. In Mechelen De Troyer is a co-founder of the art circle Van Onzen Tijd. He also associates with the Antwerp art circle Moderne Kunst. Originally under the influence of the works by Eugène Laermans and Jacob Smits, De Troyer’s work evolves via Fauvism to futuristic compositions and towards the geometrical abstraction of Jozef Peeters. Around 1922, he departs from the abstract and makes a few figurative-expressionistic works. De Troyer is friends with Michel Ghelderode. 

Source: House of Literature, Antwerp

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No biography available.

Victor Servranckx is, after Georges Vantongerloo, the most international and perhaps the most productive of the first generation of abstract artists in Belgium. His exhibition of 1924 in the Brussels Galerie Royale contained some 104 titles. Moreover, he was picked up by big international names such as Fernand Léger (1881 – 1955) and Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968). As the only artist from the Pure Plasticism, his work was chosen in 1927 by the New York gallery Société Anonyme for the International Exhibition of Modern Art. Servranckx belongs to the Brussels’ avant-garde movement. He writes contributions for the 7 Arts journal and in 1922, along with René Magritte, he writes the manifesto, L’art pur. Défense de l’esthétique. With the rediscovery of the historical avant-garde, Servranckx shall come up in the polemic over who is the first abstract artist in Belgium. Evidence for his pioneering work in 1917 is missing, but his geometric abstract works from 1923 and 1924 are without a doubt of superior quality.

Typical for his non-figurative oeuvre is material imitation and the suggestion of mechanical movement in highly stylised forms that are very close to French Purism. Servranckx gives his works neutral titles (Opus, followed by a serial number). This is completely in line with the idea of ‘collective art’. Hereby the work stands apart from any referential framework and it is free to interpret from its purely geometrical phenomenon. Through the usage of forms piled up on each other, his work often has a collage effect.

In 1925, Servranckx momentarily stops with painting in order to devote himself to architecture and design with, among other things, his own studio Kubistisch Huis and an office space in collaboration with Huib Hoste during the Exposition Internationale des arts décoratifs in Paris. When he again takes his brush in hand a year later, he distances himself from the constructivist style and allows for a very diverse mixture of styles in his oeuvre. His work evolves then to an abstract surrealism whereby organic elements are combined with geometrical forms. In visionary paintings with biomorphic figures, Servranckx experiments with new techniques and materials. However, the terse design remains part of his visual means of expression, such as the murals for the National Institute for Radio broadcasting, which in 1936 receives a great deal of attention. After WWII, he returns to a formal abstraction and actively collaborates with a new generation of working abstract artists such as Jo Delahaut and Paul Van Hoeydonck (1925). His international appeal grows further with the highpoint being his presence, as the only Belgian abstract artist, at the International World Exhibition of 1958 in Brussels.

1897

Victor Désiré Servranckx is born on 26 June in Diegem near Brussels

1913 - 1917

Servranckx attends lessons at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts et École des Arts Décoratifs in Brussels. Amongst the fellow students are also Marcel-Louis Baugniet (1896 – 1995), Pierre-Louis Flouquet, Karel Maes and René Magritte. At the same time he works as an assistant designer in the wallpaper factory Usines Peters-Lacroix (U.P.L.) in Haren near Brussels. René Magritte is a colleague between 1921-22.

1922

Participates in the exhibitions of the 2^nd and 3^rd Congresses for Modern Art in Antwerp and Bruges, respectively.

Servranckx writes, along with Magritte, the unpublished article, L’art pur. Défense de l’esthétique.

1923

In addition to the articles that he writes for 7 Arts, he is involved with the workings of the cooperative L’Equerre and the journal 7 Arts in the Salon de La Lanterne Sourde: Les arts belges d’esprit nouveau. The salon is organised in the Salle Manège of the Egmont Palace in Brussels.

Servranckx receives a large one-man exhibition in the Galerie Royale in Brussels. In the exhibition, an overview is given of his constructivist work between 1921 and 1923. The success of the exhibition ensures for a breakthrough abroad with exhibitions in Bielefeld, Bucharest and Paris.

1925

Occupies himself with the applied arts. He takes part in the Exposition Internationale des arts décoratifs in Paris and a like-named expo in Monza, Italy. In addition, he makes book-cover designs and posters on consignment for the Flemish Folk Theatre.

La plastique pure. (Art constructif)—(art collectif) is a manifesto that is one of the last death throes to be seen of the Pure Plasticism. It appears in the journal La Nervie.

1927

Servranckx is invited to take part in the exhibition, the International Exhibition of Modern Art, a travelling exhibition in the United States. This exhibition is put together by Marcel Duchamp and Katherine Dreier (1877 – 1952), the Chairwoman of the Société Anonyme. After the exhibition, she purchases the painting Opus 46—1922 (The City) in the name of the Société Anonyme.

1928 - 1929

Solo exhibition abroad in the Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin. At home, he exhibits in the gallery Le Centaure and receives an overview exhibition in the Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels.

He combines his constructivism with a surrealistic language of forms.

1930 - 1934

Servranckx marries Hélène Tyrmand. In 1938, their son Paul is born. After the death of Hélène in 1965, Servranckx remarries with Angeline Turcksin a few days before his death.

Beginning in 1932, Servranckx teaches the evening course, ‘Art History and Art Initiation’ at the Academy in Elsene.

1935 - 1937

Travels for a few months through Italy in the company of the artist Fernand Léger and the art dealer Léonce Rosenberg (1879 – 1947).

Servranckx gives a lecture in the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam under the title Constructivism and destructive art.

Along with Marcel Lempereur-Haut (1898 – 1986), Albert Gleizes (1881 – 1953) and Robert Delaunay (1885 – 1941), among others, he exhibits in Prague, The Hague and Budapest with the group exhibition, Les Artistes Musicalistes.

In the Eeuwfeestzaal (Heizel) in Brussels, Servranckx designs the booth for the National Institute for Radio broadcasting (N.I.R./I.N.R.) for the Radio salon. The large décor contains 550 m² of frescoes. Fernand Léger writes a praising letter that is published in the July edition of Clarté in 1937.

1939 - 1945

Servranckx makes a trip to Cuba, Mexico and the US. In Mexico he makes a portrait of Diego Rivera (1886 – 1957). In the US he meets the former Bauhaus instructor Lászlo Moholy-Nagy (1895 – 1946), who offers him a teaching chair at his to-be established School of Design in Chicago. Servranckx, however, returns to Brussels.

At the beginning of the 1940’s, Servranckx makes various assemblages (ready-mades). Abstract painted tiles also appear. Yet, his production is chiefly traditional with mainly figurative landscapes and portraits.

In 1945, Constant Permeke (1886 -1952), recently appointed as Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, offers Servranckx a teaching position. Due to a power struggle with the contesting former Director, Isidoor Opsomer (1878 -1967), this plan does not go through.

1946 - 1965

Servranckx becomes one of the most important figures from the second wave of Abstract Art that comes in from Paris. In 1946, he shows his early work in the Galerie La Boétie during the exhibition Cubisme along with Lipchitz, Metzinger, Picasso and Zadkine, among others. In 1947, he has a retrospective exhibition in the Palace of Fine Arts. From 1948 until 1953, Servranckx is taken up in the annual Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. In 1954, he takes part in the XXIV^th Biennale of Venice. Via the assistance of Michel Seuphor, he is also present at the important overview 50 ans de peinture Abstraite in the Galerie Creuze (1958).

Servranckx is picked up for the exhibition 50 jaar Moderne Kunst at the International World Exhibition in 1958 in Brussels.

Shortly after his retrospective exhibition in the Museum of Elsene, Victor Servranckx dies on 11 December 1965.

Sergio Servellón

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Jozef Peeters is one of the pioneers of Abstract Art in Belgium. Just as with Piet Mondriaan (1872 - 1944), Peeters evolves from Post-Impressionism to a symbolism that is heavily influenced by Theosophy. Gradually, his city images take on a strong, abstract character. The ‘animation of the surface’ was then the illustrative principle of Jozef Peeters’ Pure Plasticism, the Belgian variant of the Netherlandish Neo Plasticism. In his paintings, Peeters allows for a dynamic experiment of form along with an extensive colour palette. He distinguishes himself here from the strict horizontal-vertical compositions of the artists of De Stijl such as Mondriaan. In addition to being an artist, Peeters was also active as a promoter and organiser. Primarily his ideas and theories on Community art were influential. Abstraction was for Peeters not only a new language of images, but also a new ethical stance that must serve the community.

In September of 1918, Peeters, along with Academy fellows Edmond Van Dooren (1896 - 1965) and Jan Cockx (1891 - 1976), establishes the Kring Moderne Kunst. During this period, he emerges as the frontman of the avant-garde in Belgium. Under his impetus three congresses are organised between 1920 and 1922. The most important, the ‘2^nd Congress for Modern Art’ (1922) is accompanied by an exhibition with an impressive international delegation with exciting names such as Alexander Archipenko (1887 – 1964), Paul Klee (1879 – 1940) en Kurt Schwitters (1887 – 1948).

By invitation from Michel Seuphor, as co-Director Peeters shall reform the Flemish-originated polemical paper Het Overzicht into an international avant-garde publication. Thus contact was maintained with the French Manomètre and the Austrian MA. The highpoint of this period forms the Flemish-themed edition (March 1924) that Peeters and Seuphor assemble for Der Sturm. In 1925, Het Overzicht dissolves to be immediately replaced by De Driehoek, of which Jozef Peeters and Edgard du Perron (1899 - 1940) are the founders.

In addition to being a painter, Peeters is also active as a linotype cutter and poster and textile designer. He paints practical and decorative objects and furniture. In 1926, he quits due to familial reasons. The fallout of this mouthpiece for Constructivism in Belgium falls in line with the implosion of the first wave of Abstract Art in Belgium.

Between 1957 and his death in 1960, he briefly takes up the thread again when he is rediscovered by Jo Delahaut and the group G58. Along with René Guiette (1893 - 1976), Peeters is an honorary member of the young Neo-avant-garde group. The preserved studio flat of Peeters at the Antwerp Gerlachkaai can, along with his geometrical murals and the self-designed furniture stand as a symbol for the constructivist fusion of art and life.

1895

Birth of Josephus Henricus Peeters on 24 July in Antwerp.

1909

Peeters studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

1914

After he had a studio at Floris Jespers (1889 – 1965) in Antwerp, he establishes himself along with Edmond Van Dooren in Burcht. He paints Post-Impressionist landscapes and draws political caricatures. 

First meeting with Paul Van Ostaijen (1896 – 1928).

1915 - 1917

Under the influence of Theosophy, Jozef Peeters paints stylised portraits with geometrical forms that are used symbolically. Peeters marries Pelagia Pruym.

1918

Jozef Peeters takes part in the summer exhibition of Doe Stil Voort in the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels. Here he meets a portion of the later companions of the historical avant-garde in Belgium, inter alia, Felix De Boeck, Prosper De Troyer, Victor Servranckx and Albert Daenens (1883 – 1952). A large number of them are affiliated with the Kring Moderne Kunst that Peeters founds.

Appearance of the first abstract aquarelles, named Fantaisies. 

1919 - 1920

Peeters corresponds with Filippo Marinetti (1876 – 1944) and Theo Van Doesburg (1883 – 1931). Van Doesburg’s presentation, 'Klassiek, barok, modern’ is organised by Peeters in February 1920.

Peeters becomes one of the two vice-chairmen for the establishment of the Syndicate for Artists.

Roger Avermaete (1893 – 1988) dedicates a premier article to Peeters in Lumière.

On 10 and 11 October of 1920, Peeters organises the ‘First Congress for Modern Art’ along with Huib Hoste in the Belpaire Institute in Antwerp.

Designs posters, makes linotypes and paints the first geometric, abstract works.

1921

Inspired by the Arbeitsrat für Kunst, Peeters promotes the idea to establish an Antwerp art council with a strong emphasis on the applied arts. One year later, Peeters publishes the article ‘Over kunstenaarsraden’ in Vlaamsche Arbeid.

Peeters travels with his wife to Paris where is comes in contact with prominent artists such as Piet Mondriaan, Albert Gleizes (1881 – 1953) and Fernand Léger (1881 – 1955). By appointment of the latter, Peeters becomes a member of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in Paris. He corresponds with the editors of Der Sturm, Frantiske Kupka (1871 – 1957) and J.J. Oud (1890 – 1963), among others.

Publication of a folder with 6 linocuts.

On 1 December, Theo Van Doesburg gives his second Antwerp lecture, ‘Tot Stijl’. That evening, Peeters meets Fernand Berckelaers, who is later Michel Seuphor. This same month Peeters publishes his article ‘Community art’ in Het Overzicht.

1922

From 21 to 23 January, Peeters organises the ‘2^nd Congress for Modern Art’ in Antwerp. The lectures take place in the Royal Atheneum while the international exhibitions is to be seen in the El Bardo hall above the Vlaams Huis on the Sint-Jacobsmarkt. His ‘Introduction to the Modern Plastic’ is published in September in Het Overzicht.

Peeters takes part in the Eerste Internationale Kunstausstellung in Düsselfdorf.

From 30 July until 15 August, the ‘3^rd Congress for Modern Art’ takes place in Bruges in collaboration with the scientific congresses.

Peeters formally takes on the co-directorship of the journal Het Overzicht with dominion over the expressive arts. The first edition under his leadership contains a linotype by him as well as his text ‘Futurism’.

First individual exhibition in the Galleria Bragaglia in Rome.

1923

‘Impressions from Berlin’ appears in the May-June number of Het Overzicht. Herein Peeters tells about the trip that he had taken a year before with Seuphor. During the journey, he met Adolf Behne (1890 – 1963), László Moholy-Nagy (1895 – 1946), El Lissitzky (1890 – 1941) and Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944).

In March, 7 Arts publishes a long article by Maurice Casteels (1890 – 1962) on Jozef Peeters. In December of that same year he is invited to take part in the 7 Arts booth along with Felix De Boeck, Victor Servranckx, Pierre-Louis Flouquet and Karel Maes. The architect Victor Bourgeois (1897 – 1962) designs the booth.

Designs and realises decorative objects, tapestries, furniture and interiors.

1924

Peeters moves to the Statiekaai 10 (now Gerlachkaai). He remains there until the end of his life. Shortly after this move his two children are born. In the period of 1927-1937 he implements the interior.

1937

As his wife becomes terminally ill, Peeters takes on her care himself. He paints traditional landscapes and still lives to provide a living, sometimes under the pseudonym H. Angtze.

1953 - 1959

Thanks to a new generation of artists and art promoters such as Jo Delahaut and Maurits Bilcke (1913 – 1993), the first abstracts are rediscovered. Peeters becomes an honorary member of the group G58 and takes up again his production of abstract works from the 1920’s.

1960

Jozef Peeters dies on 10 September in the Stuivenberg Hospital in Antwerp.

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Georges Vantongerloo is internationally known as the most important abstract artist and theorist from Belgium. With works in the collections of the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art (both in New York), the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Kröller-Müller Museum (Otterlo), among others, he is the ambassador of the Belgian abstract.

Strictly speaking, Vantongerloo does not belong to the movement of the Pure Plasticism. Just as with Marthe Donas, Vantongerloo begins his avant-garde period abroad. He begins as a sculptor after studies in Antwerp and Brussels. Subsequently he moves to Holland during World War I and comes into contact with the artists of De Stijl, in which he shall play an important role. He settles in Menton (South France) and works in Paris along with Michel Seuphor on the group exhibition Cercle et Carré (1930). One year later he forms Abstraction-Création with Auguste Herbin. Vantongerloo is taken up in all important international exhibitions in the years 1930-40: Cubism and Abstract Art in the MoMa (1936), Abstracte Kunst in the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam and Konkrete Kunst in the Kunsthalle of Basel (1944).

Vantongerloo, who ascribes to the abstract language of form after 1917, applies himself to Abstract Art in order to get control of rules by which he develops an interest in geometrical relationships and algebraic formulas. In addition to his artistic practice, Vantongerloo also writes theoretical work about his research. Primarily after the publication of his pamphlet L’Art et son Avenir in 1924, he creates new impulses for geometric abstraction with his writings. In this way, for example, he subjects three neo-plastic works of Piet Mondriaan (1872 - 1944) to an analysis in the French publication Vouloir. In this way he opens up the way for his own ‘mathematical’ abstraction.

For twenty years Vantongerloo works as a painter and sculptor on his oeuvre and restricts himself to horizontal and vertical lines. The three-dimensional translation of this play of lines leads him to architectural concepts that he attempts to incorporate in urban projects for bridges and airports. Around 1937, after he distances himself from the straight line in favour of the curved line, principles continue to determine his work, but his work takes on a larger, lyrical freedom. His latest works are fresh and playful. He uses new materials, such as Plexiglas and plastic, and plays with transparency, colour and light. The use of spirals leads Vantongerloo’s research to ‘immeasurable’ space.

Despite his impact on the development of 20-century art, Vantongerloo remains ‘the great unknown’ for the general public, as his colleague and protégé Max Bill called him already in 1962. 

1886

Fransciscus Georgius Leonardus Vantongerloo is born on 24 November in Antwerp.

1900 - 1909

From 1900 he studies general and drafting studies at the Academy for Fine Arts in Antwerp. Beginning in 1903, he follows a four-year course of sculptural art and works in the studio of sculptor Emile Jespers, father of fellow student Oscar.

In 1905, he moves to Brussels, where he enrols at the Academy of Fine Arts. Completes his military service from 1906 to 1909.

1909 - 1914

Vantongerloo survives on a means of grants, including a work grant by the royal court. Beginning in 1911, he exhibits figurative sculptures in exhibitions in Charleroi, Liege and Brussels. In 1914, he participates in the General World’s exhibition in Ghent with Portrait of M.J..

Following the invasion on 4 August 1914 of the German army, Vantongerloo is reinstated. He is wounded by a gas attack and is discharged from the army in October 1914.

Escapes to the Netherlands. He lives in Wassenaar and then The Hague.

Participates in the alternative salons that the Belgian government organises for artists in exile. Vantongerloo receives various praising reviews for his portraits.

1915 - 1917

Via Willem Paerels, meets Futurist Jules Schmalzigaug in The Hague in the Comité Belge. Vantongerloo continues making conventional works for the Belgian elite in exile and the Netherlandish bourgeois. He has his first one-man exhibition.

Becomes acquainted with Futurism and the theories of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876 - 1944) via Schmalzigaug. Shortly thereafter, the latter commits suicide.

Is involved in a dispute with his future father-in-law. The fight escalates and results in a prison sentence. After his release, Vantongerloo receives a second solo exhibition with sculptures and paintings. On 28 November 1917 he marries Tine (Woutrina) Kalis.

1918 - 1922

In March 1918, Vantongerloo learns about the publication De nieuwe beweging in de schilderkunst by Theo Van Doesburg. Immediately afterwards, Vantongerloo visits Van Doesburg (1883 - 1931).

Begins with his theoretical writings. A first version of Science et Art, an article that appears in July 1918 in De Stijl, under the title of Réflexions. In the series of texts that he makes for De Stijl (1918 - 1920), he abandons the figurative in favour of an abstract aesthetic. 

Exhibits the abstract image Construction dans la sphère at the exposition Belgische Moderne Kunst in the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam (end of 1918). The work is later replaced with a work by Van Doesburg.

After the armistice, the Vantongerloo couple moves to Brussels. He writes the first chapters of L’art et Son Avenir and begins to assemble his ideas about colours. He visits Gino Severini in 1919 in Paris and corresponds with him afterwards.

In December 1919, De Stijl publishes two works by Vantongerloo, Construction des rapports des volumes. They quickly obtain an iconic status thanks to the distribution by Van Doesburg. Vantongerloo introduces Van Doesburg’s lecture Classique-Baroque-moderne in Antwerp (19 February 1920). It is the beginning of the Pure Plasticism in Flanders.

Moves to Menton (Southern France) for health reasons. On the way he meets Piet Mondriaan for the first time. Embarks upon a study of mathematics.

1923 - 1927

Publication of L’Art et son Avenir in 1924, an edition by De Sikkel Uitgeverij in Antwerp. For several years he is occupied with primarily being a theoretician. 

Michel Seuphor stays for a few weeks with the Vantongerloo couple in Menton. In 1927, a conflict between Van Doesburg and Mondriaan causes a break with Van Doesburg.

1928 - 1946

Vantongerloo moves from Menton to Paris, whereupon he collaborates with Seuphor in 1930, Mondriaan and Luigi Russolo (1885 - 1947) with the Cercle et Carré exhibition in Galerie 23. In 1931 he becomes Vice-president of the artists association Abstraction-Création, a function that he serves until 1936.

Develops a strong interest for architecture and city building. Corresponds with the Belgian Premier Henri Jaspar regarding a bridge project for the connecting of the Schelde’s bank in Antwerp. His models of bridges and an airport were exhibited at Cercle et Carré and L’Art mural in 1935, inter alia.

Vantongerloo’s titles change in content. Gradually the references shift from geometrical schemes to algebraic formulas. Towards the end of his life, general descriptions, such as Variantes or Courbes, prevail. The introduction of the curve in his paintings from 1937 onwards allows him to create a more open space.

Beginning in 1929, Vantongerloo is taken up in many important exhibitions and his finds an association with the new generation of abstract working artists. A few examples: Abstrakte en Surrealistische Malerei und Plastik (Kunsthaus Zürich, 1929), AC Internationell Utställning av Post-Kubistik Konst (1930, Stockholm), L’Art Mural (Paris, 1935), Cubism and abstract Art (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1936), Kunsthalle Basel (1937), Abstrakte Kunst (Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam, 1938), Art Non-Objectif (Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 1939) and 1^er Salon des Réalités Nouvelles (Paris, 1946).

1949 - 1964

After WWII, Vantongerloo is highly productive. He exhibits 60 works, along with Max Bill (1908 - 1994) and Antoine Pevsner (1884 - 1962) in the Kunsthaus Zürich.

Declines to participate in the exhibition De eerste abstrakten in België by the group G 58 in the Antwerp Hessenhuis. He also distances himself from Seuphor’s book Abstracte kunst in Vlaanderen (1963).

Uses plastic and Plexiglas for the first time.

Vantongerloo is picked up for a series of overview exhibitions such as Konkrete Kunst—50 Jahre Entwicklung (Helmhaus, Zürich). Takes part in the Biennial for Sculptural Art in Paris in 1960 and in 1962 receives a retrospective exhibition in the Marlborough Fine Art gallery in London.

1965

Vantongerloo dies in Paris on 5 October 1965.

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No biography available.