FAMILIE | Kunst in de Stad

FAMILIE (WERNER HEYNDRICKX)

On the site of the Vitaz hospital, in the Moerlandstraat, we can find a second group of statues called ‘Familie’ and made by Werner Heyndrickx, a sculptor living in Sint-Niklaas. It stands in a raised green border by the entrance.

This work is perfectly situated by the entrance of the hospital. The force of healing is not only the result of medical intervention and medication, psychological support is equally essential for the patient. In this, the family can play a crucial role.

Heyndrickx works in an expressionist style. Father and mother are seated, mother in the centre, embraced by the father and the child. All figures are depicted with angular characteristics. The looks are expressive and determined. The spectator is right to make the link with the work of the Flemish expressionists of the second Lathem School.

The work of art is composed of one monolith block. Originally it was meant to be cut in stone, but by its compact form, it is technically very suitable to be executed in bronze. The grey-green patina refers to the look of weather-beaten rock. The sloped verge on which pedestal and statue are placed remind of the bow of a ship.

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.