Marcel Verhofstadt, a pupil of the late Jacques Maes, is one of the founder members of the Realist movement. He is currently training tomorrow’s talented artists at the Saint-Josse Academy of Fine Arts.
He is a man who is close to nature, and you can see that in his work.
And when I say “nature”, I mean Nature with a capital “N”. Is he an environmentalist? I think so. He pokes fun at labels. He penetrates right to the soul of things, meditatively – or perhaps you could even say attentively, looking for this soul. The man’s approach is as strong as his star sign (Taurus): assured and deliberate, despite the doubts and uncertainties. His heart does not rest at ease. His progress is on a grand scale, with carefully thought out and faultlessly executed graphics in striking and even audacious colours. It is not literature, no stories are being told: just sober painting (or so it appears), solidly put together and with nothing left to random chance. That is the nature of the man.

Daniel Van Wiemes (Galerie du Parvis, March 1990)

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