
Demangel Chris(tiaan)
Chris (tiaan) Demangel was a Belgian artist, born in Ghent in 1938 and died in 2014. He was a sculptor and ceramicist. He trained at the Municipal Vocational School in Ghent, and further studied sculpting and modeling at the Academy in Ghent, under the guidance of Berten Coolen. He was a designer of figures and nudes and used a neo-expressionist design. He also designed assemblages that lean towards surrealism. As a visual artist he was very sensitive to human problems in the contemporary world. He was moved both by the major world problems (hunger, freedom) and by the process of alienation of the individual. From the press: “C.D. gives classicism a broader dimension with its figures that are contemporary and yet respect the fundamental aesthetic standards, classic and yet contemporary, realistic and imbued with a great sensibility that one wants to experience.” (H.B., 1983). Chris Demangel won the Provincial Prize for sculpture of East Flanders in 1966. In 1965, 1966 and 1969 he was laureate of the De Vigne Prize and in 1969 of the Deleu Prize. He worked in Heusden/Ghent. From 1978-1998 he was a sculpture teacher and from 1984-1985 a ceramics teacher at the Dendermonde Academy. (Piron)