Servranckx Victor
Victor Servranckx was a Belgian artist born in Diegem in 1897 and died in Vilvoorde in1965. He was a painter, draftsman and sculptor. He made abstract clay sculptures at a young age. He studied at the Academy in Brussels (1913-1917). Taelemans and Montald, two very important teachers for him, also immediately determined how his personality would develop. From 1917 to 1925 he worked as a draftsman-designer of wallpaper for the ULP firm in Haren. He participated in the activities of Jozef Peeters in Antwerp and in the exhibition of the Second Congress of "Modern Art" in 1922. From around 1924 he made his first designs for furniture and architecture, led debates and gave presentations on modern art within - and abroad. Was invited in 1925 to the “L’art d’aujourd’hui” exhibition in Paris with Picasso, Braque, Van Doesburg and Mondriaan. Almost as a big exception, he remained true to abstraction all his life. Was always in contact with the most prominent artists of modern art at home and abroad. His early work, with a fanciful Dadaistic touch, evolved into a geometric abstraction which evoked the modern mechanical world and showed affinities with Léger, Kupka, Delaunay. Around 1927, his style freed itself from its sleek design and was more inspired by surreal visions and cosmic spaces, with a reminder of organic substances and plants. The human figure was then again shown in winding curves. After 1948 he left this vision to definitively manifest himself as one of the most important representatives of abstract art in Belgium, and re-established the groundbreaking work he had already delivered from 1917 to 1927. Was a member of the organizing committee of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1925, in Antwerp in 1930 and in Brussels in 1935. Realized in 1936 a mural of 550 m² for the pavilion of the BRT in Brussels. From 1932 he was an art philosophy teacher at the Academy in Ixelles. Work among others in the Museum in Antwerp. Listed in BAS I and II. (PIRON)