William Verstraeten (1951-1923) connected art with science and built a work of art that was like a rock

“If I were rich, I would buy my own works,” William Verstraeten eventually said to Dix’s kindred spirit, the poet F. van Dixhorn. Did the sick Verstraten express a great degree of satisfaction at the end of his life, or did he want to say something else? That the purchase would have enabled him as an artist to set up the huge studio he wanted behind his house in Lamswarde in Flemish Zealand?

He strived to accomplish great deeds, and Verstraeten knew he could dare himself. Deeks: William was convinced enough of himself for that. He also proved that he is capable of creating great things. Especially by making everything perfect down to the smallest detail. All of his designs, including his early works, are very solid.

Visual artist, photographer, designer, art dealer and curator – Verstraeten combines art with a fascination with science in its diversity. He searched for mysticism and found it in all aspects of life. He called them “miracles of nature.” He took fragments from it and expanded them into art that created amazement.

ignorance

After one year he was asked to leave the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp due to lack of talent. William Verstraeten laughed at this miscalculation and confidently set about building a large-scale and versatile business. In Middleburg he participated as a photographer and designer in the internationally controversial new music festival in the late 1970s. At that time he also founded De Vleeshal, which remains a popular center for contemporary art.

In 2010, he was asked to exhibit his Igirama, an ingenious version of the classic panorama, in New York. A dome design with photographs and a mirrored floor could have given the World Trade Center the famous view from the Twin Towers, but ultimately Williams-Ijirama missed out on the 9/11 memorial and museum. Verstraeten answered succinctly and with aplomb: “This is such a good design that it finds its own place as a work of art.” It will be published somewhere someday.

Orange mastodon

His greatest work could be the transformation with which he transformed the central repository of radioactive waste in Purcell, Cofra, into an orange mastodon in the West Scheldt. With Einstein’s E = mc on the outer walls everywhere²the formula that indicates the relationship between energy and mass in the theory of relativity.

Verstraeten himself never spoke of his greatest works, because his artistic prowess also involved the constant pursuit of new, greater works. At the same time, he mastered slowing down: working slowly so that he could endlessly observe and change his concepts in a process that was to lead to perfection. “I actually do my best all day long to earn as little as possible,” is how he described his work style.

Confusing text

Due to financial difficulties as a result of the banking crisis in 2008, Verstraeten had to leave his huge building in Middelburg. In protest, he painted the entire building, including the doorbell, orange. “Code orange for the average bank customer” was his statement, which was reinforced with simple, vague text from Dix ​​on the front: Bring,’

Verstraeten, who died of colon cancer on September 24 at the age of 72 and leaves behind his wife, Marijke Smulders, three daughters and a boy, was a beloved person. But he was also someone who made no compromises, and therefore clashed regularly, although never with Van Dijkhoorn. “We were good at playing ping-pong together.” The two friends agreed that the ball sometimes hit them. Deeks: Yeah, we were really good together. “But William’s best friend was art.”