Smitz Willy

Willy Smitz was a Dutch-Belgian artist, born in The Hague/Netherlands in 1914 and died in Anderlecht in 1967. He was educated at the Academy in Brussels under the guidance of Anton Carte. His work reflects his Flemish temperament and his preference for rich, full colours. He realized figures, nudes, compositions with figures, religious subjects and rural scenes. To emphasize the character of his subjects even more, he stylized the portraits and figures. He sometimes leaned towards surrealism. From the press: “Each of his paintings is simultaneously a poem and a rebus.” He exhibited at the Saint-Laurent gallery in Brussels in 1951, at the Sisley gallery in Brussels in 1958, with Vision 60 at the Galerie de la Madeleine in Brussels in 1960 and in the gallery La Rose des Vents in Brussels in 1964. Work by Willy Smitz is included in the collection of the municipality of Anderlecht, among others. He is mentioned in BAS II and Two centuries of signatures of Belgian artists. (Piron)