Verkest Ernest

Ernest Verkest was a Belgian artist who was born in 1923 in Tielt and who died in 2002 in Roeselare. He was a painter, draftsman, watercolourist, graphic artist, designer of posters and sets and actor. Education at Sint-Lucas in Ghent (1942-1949). Debuted with advertising and occasional graphics, designed logos, book covers, posters. Initially painted landscapes, seascapes, still lifes, sometimes with baroque tension, but mostly playful and with refined fantasy and a poetic touch. It then evolved towards abstraction, but then definitively returned to figuration. Landscapes and navies, which he managed to give a certain timelessness, continued to fascinate him. However, he also painted portraits and figures. From the press: "E.V. put the silence in profile. You rarely have the impression that you can dialogue aloud with his figures. That silence arises from the fact that the draftsman creates a distance that does not immediately suggest a removal, but rather erects a barrier of melancholy.' (G.M., 1984). Teacher of decorative arts and art history at the Academy in Tielt (1948-1965). Co-founder of the Imago and Aksent galleries in Tielt. Mentioned in the lexicon of West Flemish visual artists III, BAS II and two centuries of signatures of Belgian artists. (piron)