Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck has passed away at 99 years old.
© Paul Van Welden (CC-BY-SA 4.0)
You could say that Paul Van Hoeydonck’s art was out of this world, quite literally in fact. He’s had a work of art on the moon since 1971, which you can of course read all about on this very website. If you’ll indulge us: the statue on the moon seemed to be written in the stars for Van Hoeydonck: he indeed had a fascination with the cosmos.
Of course, he was much more than “just” the creator of a statuette on the moon. Van Hoeydonck made paintings, sculptures, collages; you name it, he probably did it. His work has not only been to outer space, but also to the most prestigious museums in Belgium and far beyond, from the Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In addition, his work 16 X Icarus graces the Comte de Flandre metro station in Molenbeek, not far from the centre of town.
Van Hoeydonck was active from the 1950s until the 2010s. He will be forever remembered and sorely missed.
