Louis Van Lint (December 26, 1909 – December 27, 1986) was a Belgian

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

, major figure of the Belgian post-war

abstraction Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" ...

Biography

Louis Van Lint studied painting at the Academy of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode (

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

) under Henry Ottevaere and Jacques Maes until 1939. He studied

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

as well. His early work reflects a traditional figurative painting style with a unique sense of color. In 1940 he founded the group "La Route Libre" with Gaston Bertrand and

Anne Bonnet Anne Bonnet née Thonet (16 May 1908 – 14 November 1960) was a Belgium, Belgian painter. Bonnet was born in Brussels and began her studies in art in 1924, but abandoned them in 1926 on the death of her parents. In 1930, she married Louis Bon ...

. His art was influenced to some degree by the animist movement, but he eventually broke away with the presentation of his painting, The Flayed Body (L'Ecorche, 1943), a shocking expression of his wish for more artistic freedom that consequently sounded a revolt against animism. As his style matured, he switched to

in which he excelled as colorist and master of form. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he co-founded The Young Belgian Painters (La Jeune Peinture Belge) with Gaston Bertrand, Anne Bonnet and some others. Van Lint experimented with

geometric abstraction Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions. Although the genre was popu ...

for a decade, and then, influenced by the French painter

Bazaine Bazaine is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Adolphe Bazaine-Vasseur (1809–1893), French railway engineer * François Achille Bazaine François Achille Bazaine (13 February 181123 September 1888) was an officer of the Fren ...

, he started his

lyrical abstraction Lyrical abstraction arose from either of two related but distinct art movement, trends in Post-war Modernist painting: * European ''Abstraction Lyrique'': a movement that emerged in Paris, with the French art critic Jean José Marchand being cr ...

period. He participated in the demonstrations and exhibitions of the

CoBrA COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

group. In 1958, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation gave him a prize and in 1960 he became a member of the

Royal Academy of Belgium The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB) is a non-governmental association that promotes and organises science and the arts in Belgium by coordinating the national and international activities of its constituent academies su ...

. In the 1960s, he introduced

Hergé Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé ( ; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian comic strip artist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of T ...

to abstract painting and provided him with private lessons for one year. He has long been represented in Belgian section in outstanding exhibitions of contemporary painting and his work is held by several museums all over the world such as the

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (, ; , ) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They are part of the institutions of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) and consist of six museums: the Oldmasters Museum, the ...

, the

Uffizi Gallery The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of ...

of Florence, the Guggenheim and the

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

museums in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, the

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art is an art museum in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The museum was originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was formerly located ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, and the São Paulo Contemporary Art Museum in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Van Lint collector

All along his life, Van Lint collected antique tools chosen for their harmonious shapes. Part of the collection decorated a wall of his living room and aroused the curiosity and interest of many famous guests.

Exhibitions

* Venice Biennale, 1948. * International Watercolor Exhibition, Fourteenth Biennial, Brooklyn Museum, New York, 1948. * São Paulo Biennale, 1951-1953. * Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1952. * ''7 Belgian artists,'' Tokyo, 1952. * ''7 Belgian artists,'' Duk-Soo Palace, Seoul, 1952. * 2nd Sâo Paulo Biennial, Museu de Arte Moderna, Sâo Paulo, 1953. * Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1954. * ''L’image de Lille,'' Palais de Chaillot, Paris, 1958. * Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1958. * ''A few Belgian artists since Ensor,'' New York, 1958. * Documenta 2, Documenta, Cassel, 1959. * 5th Sâo Paulo Biennial, Museu de Arte Moderna, Sâo Paulo, 1959. * ''The Arts of Belgium 1920-1960,'' Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 1960. * ''Twenty Contemporary Painters from Phlippe Dotremont Collection Brussels,'' Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1959. * Tokyo Biennale, 1961. * ''First Midwestern Exhibition of Belgian Painters,'' The Arts Club & The Art Gallery of University Notre-Dame, Chicago, 1961. * ''First Midwestern Exhibition of Belgian Painters,'' The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, 1962. * ''First Midwestern Exhibition of Belgian Painters,'' The University Gallery of Minnesota, 1962. * ''Belgian drawings from Ensor to Delvaux,'' Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1962. * ''Joven Pintura Belga,'' Sala de expociones de la direccion general de Bellas Artes, Madrid, 1962. * Tokyo Biennale, 1965. * ''International Exhibition,'' Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, 1967. * ''Belgian Art 1945-1970,'' Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico, 1970. * ''Cobra Hasta 12 Años Despues: En La Coleccion Karel Van Stuijenberg,'' Museo de arte contemporáneo, Santiago, et Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, 1994. * ''The Flemish and Ostend painting,'' Venice, 1997. * ''From Cobra to abstraction.'' The Thomas Neirynck Collection, Paris, 2006. * ''Cobra Passages – The Neyrinck collection'', BAM, Mons, 2008. * BRAFA, 25th anniversary of the King Baudouin Foundation, Brussels, 2012 * ''Kandinsky & Russia,'' Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, 2013 * ''Around Louis Van Lint,'' Pierre Hallet Gallery, Brussels, 2013 * ''Belgian geometrical abstractions. From 1945 to the present days,'' BAM, Mons, 2014. * ''The Belgian self-portraits of the Uffizi'' Uffizi Gallery, Florence, 2014.

Bibliography

Monographs * Léon-Louis Sosset, ''Louis Van Lint,'' Sikkel, Antwerps, 1951 * Philippe Roberts-Jones, ''Van Lint,'' the French Community Ministry, Brussels, 1983 * Serge Goyens de Heusch, ''Louis Van Lint,'' Ghent, 2002 Selected books * George Stewart, ''These Men, My Friends,'' Caldwell, Idaho : Caxton Printers, 1954, 400 p. * ''Guggenheim international award,'' Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1958, 30 p. * Gordon Bailey Washburn, ''The 1958 Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture,'' Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute Press, Pittsburgh, 1958 * Gaston Diehl, ''The moderns: a treasury of painting throughout the world,'' Crown Publishers, 1961, 219 p. * Marcel Brion, ''Art since 1945,'' Washington Square Press, New York, 1962, 336 p. * Will Grohmann, Sam Hunter, ''New art around the world: painting and sculpture,'' H. N. Abrams, New York, 1966, 509 p. * Michel Seuphor, ''Abstract painting: 50 years of accomplishment, from Kandinsky to the present,'' Abrams, New York, 1967, 192 p. * ''Phaidon encyclopedia of art and artists,'' Phaidon, 1978, 764 p. * Harold Osborne, ''The Oxford companion to twentieth-century art,'' Oxford University Press, 1981, 656 p. * Jean Clarence Lambert, ''Cobra,'' Abbeville Press, New York, 1984, 261 p. * W. Patrick Atkinson, ''Theatrical Design in the Twentieth Century: An Index to Photographic Reproductions of Scenic Designs,'' Greenwood Press, London, 1996, 488 p. * Jan Hoet, ''S.M.A.K. : Museum of Contemporary Art,'' Ludion, Ghent, 1999, 269 p. * ''Museum of modern art: a selection of works,'' Royal Museums of Belgium, Brussels 2001, 269 p. * Sara Pendergast, Tom Pendergast, ''Contemporary Artists: A-K,'' St. James Press, 2002 * Peter Shield, Graham Birtwistle, ''Cobra: Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam,'' Hayward Gallery, London, 2003, 107 p. * Paul F. State, ''Historical dictionary of Brussels,'' Scarecrow Press, USA, 2004. * Nathalie Aubert, Pierre-Philippe Fraiture, Patrick McGuinness, ''From Art Nouveau to Surrealism: Belgian modernity in the making,'' London, 2007. * Michael Farr, ''The Adventures of Herge, creator of Tintin,'' Last Gasp, San Francisco, 2007, 127 p. * Leen de Jong, Siska Beele, ''The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp: a history, 1810-2007,'' Stichting Kunstboek, 2008, 255 p. * Pierre Assouline, Charles Ruas, ''Hergé: The Man Who Created Tintin,'' Oxford University Press, USA, 2009, 288 p. * ''Gli autoritratti belgi degli Uffizi,'' Uffizi Gallery, Giunti, Florence, 127 p.

Notes

External links

''Official website''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Lint, Louis 20th-century Belgian painters Belgian abstract painters Belgian collectors 1909 births 1986 deaths Art Informel and Tachisme painters