Liefooghe Frank

Frank Liefooghe is a Belgian artist, born in Ypres in 1943. He is a painter, draftsman, lithographer, and creator of objects and installations. He studied at Sint-Lucas and the Academy of Ghent, under the guidance of G. De Vuyst, P. Vlerick, R. Servais, and J. Burssens. He later stayed in Italy, where he met V. Adami and L. Fontana.

In 1967, he co-founded the Ghent-based group De Nieuwe Rococo, together with L. Copers and B. Van Hoecke. He travelled and worked in Ibiza, Ireland, West Africa (1982), Moscow (Baked Poems Project), and Sri Lanka (1992), among other places. Across the world, he launched innocent yet imaginative projects promoting peace, imagination, and understanding, breaking boundaries between artistic disciplines.

He painted a symbolic passage on the Berlin Wall, erected a monument against violence on the summit of Mont Blanc, tied North and South Ireland together with a giant knot, and showcased his Baked Poems on Moscow’s Red Square.

From the press: “Immersing oneself in a totally different civilization; rediscovering ancient life values that have been replaced in Europe by sophisticated devices; experiencing how one’s life rhythm adapts to that of friends—undergoing the therapy of estrangement and enjoying it: these experiences led the painter F.L. from one artistic discovery to another. They gave rise, besides numerous drawings and sketches, to paintings such as Rain Dance of the Lobi and Rebirth, which only share the palette and brush with Western art, but no longer the spirit.”

Frank Liefooghe is mentioned in the Lexicon of West Flemish Visual Artists VI and Two Centuries of Signatures of Belgian Artists. (Piron)