Verelst Gust

Gust Verelst (August) was a Belgian artist who was born in 1901 in Niel and who died in 1978 in Boom. He was a painter and designer of furniture. During the First World War, he moved to the Netherlands with his parents and received his first artistic training there from Albert Thijs. Back in Belgium from 1919 training at the Academy in Antwerp under J. De Vriendt and Is. sum up. Painted landscapes, views from the Rupel region with the river, the drying sheds and fireplaces, figures, portraits, nudes. Was described in 1947 as an 'authentic painter of the Rupel region'. From the press: 'In his works G.V. in an honest way, sometimes with dark colors, sometimes with heavily brushed brushstrokes, his love for his artistry.' (R. Van Den Broeck, 2007). First important exhibition in the Zaal Aghte in Antwerp in 1942. His works were subsequently shown in Brussels (1947), Zwolle/Netherlands (1949), Groningen/Netherlands, Esch-sur-Alzette/Luxembourg and Niel, but mostly he stayed with it on the spot in Boom, where he ran a small shop in the Hospitaalstraat with his studio above it. Retrospective in the Municipal Kindergarten in Niel in 2007. (Piron)