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Mechelse kunstenaar August Gillé

Gillé August

August Gillé was a Belgian artist born in Mechelen in 1892 and died in Bonheiden in 1989. He was a painter and sculptor. Got his training in furniture manufacturing at the Academy in Mechelen (1910-1913). Debuted as a furniture maker and sculptor. After the First World War, he started to focus on his great passion, painting. Then he took classes at the Academy in Mechelen (1919-1920) and Brussels (1922-1925). As a painter, he evolved from expressionist figuration to spontaneous lyrical abstraction. Realized approx. 10,000 works: oil paintings on canvas, drawings on paper, studies and sculptures. For six years, led the exhibition space and meeting center for artists De Witte Vlag in a farm in the Guldensporenlaan in Bonheiden. There, he organized 25 exhibitions and thus became friends with Prosper De Troyer and Gustave Van De Woestyne. Was a teacher at the Academy in Mechelen (1937-1942). At the end of his life, he donated his entire oeuvre to the municipality of Bonheiden, on the condition that the government opened up his work to the public. This wish has not yet been fulfilled. Homage exhibition in the community center 't Blikveld in Bonheiden in 2007. (PIRON)