De Lee Jan

Jan De Lee was a Belgian artist, born in Ostend in 1930 and deceased there in 2000. He was active as a painter, ceramicist, sculptor and decorator. He studied at Sint-Lucas in Ghent under the guidance of J. Wauters, G. De Vuyst, G. Hermans, J. Maréchal and M. Van Damme. His oeuvre includes nudes, still lifes, flower pieces, landscapes, (fishermen) figures and animals, mainly fish. Stylistically, his work alternates between cubism, hyperrealism and a purely decorative approach, with a clear emphasis on line and colour. As a sculptor, he designed streamlined sculptures in wood and stone, in which stylisation and elegance prevail. He was also a teacher of watercolour and graphic arts at the Academy in Ostend. In the press, his work was described as an oasis of calm and poetry; according to a review from 1994, he had fully developed his style into a serene composition in which stylised figures and objects appear, delicate colour harmonies are created, and each scene forms a coherent whole, both in terms of formal rhythm and colour. He exhibited in Ostend at ’t Kroegske in 1958 and 1962, at La Chèvre Folle in 1961 and at the Forum Gallery in 1965 and 1968, and in Brussels at the L’Escalier Gallery in 1964. His work can be found in the museum in Ostend. He is listed in the Lexicon of West Flemish Visual Artists, volume IV, in BAS II and in Two Centuries of Signatures of Belgian Artists (Piron).