BUSTE ADOLPHE CRYNS

BUSTE ADOPHE CRYNS (WERNER HEYNDRICKX)

He was married to Fernande Hommelen and had a daughter Denise.

He worked in Leopoldville in the Belgian Congo from 1924 to 1933 and was the police commissioner of Sint-Niklaas from 1939 to 1968.

During the Belgian army mobilization he was called under arms, but by mediation of Mayor Heyman he was able to resume his local duties indefinitely.

He got along relatively well with war mayor Van Haver, as both were genuinely concerned for the welfare of civilians, but Cryns did not believe in a German final victory.

He coolly tried to delay the implementation of the German “Ordnungen”: “gaining time” and “beating about the bush” was his motto.

The Germans were clearly unaware that Commissioner Cryns played a very active role in the resistance. He joined the Belgian Legion, later the Secret Army, and operated as an intelligence agent. He gathered information useful for the resistance and regularly went snooping on enemy agencies’ offices. He discussed sabotage plans with the resistance groups’ leadership and led the German investigators down the wrong or dead end.

Cryns was well aware that he was playing with fire and in danger of being arrested. Yet this never happened.

He was probably a figure who was not easy to fathom. Yet it is precisely this characteristic that Werner Heynderickx brings out in his sculpture work.

He portrays a man in his gala uniform, radiating authority and determination, still not easily fathomed.

After liberation, Cryns received international and national honours for his key role in the resistance.

With thanks to Sandra Vancauwenberghe for the information

HEYNDRICKX Werner (1909-1986)

Werner Heyndrickx was a sculptor of portraits and figures. His father, Jozef Heyndrickx, was a stonemason. Education at the academies of Sint-Niklaas and Antwerp and at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Antwerp (studio of E. Wijnants). Teacher of sculpture at the Municipal Academy of Fine Arts in Sint-Niklaas and the Higher Institute in Antwerp

His workshop was situated near the Tereken cemetery in Sint-Niklaas. For bronze casting he always worked with Achiel Vindevogel in Zwijnaarde. He attached major attention to the patina of a statue.

Particularly in Werner Heyndrickx's early works one can still clearly sense the influence of his teachers Arthur Dupon and especially Ernest Wijnants: in the monumentality and in the  reduction of an image to a number of stylized surfaces . This rather synthesizing style is recognisable in the sculptures of the apostles he made for the church of ‘Kristus Koning’ in Sint-Niklaas. Even though heads, hands and feet have been executed with precision and detail, the vertical folds are stylised. The same approach can be seen in the sculptures ‘Contemplatie’ and ‘Familie’.

Werner Heyndrickx’s portraits exhale sharp observation. They are the result of a relentless search for an accurate resemblance and for the subject’s character.

He took part in many exhibitions in Belgium and abroad: Antwerp, Ghent, Liège, Namur, Paris, Prague and Bratislava. Prizes : the 'Godecharle Prize', the 'Van Lerius Prize', the 'Doutrolon de Try Prize' and the 'Prize of the Province of East Flanders for Sculpture'.

Kunst in de Stad displays some fifteen works by this sculptor.

Kunst in de Stad, april 24^th 2010