Van Hoeydonck graduated in History of Art and Archaeology in his hometown of Antwerp, Belgium. Rooted in the period of Pop-Art, Op-art and Nouveau Realisme, he managed to devise a completely new oeuvre with his Space-Art. Throughout his career, Van Hoeydonck stood aside dominating styles and movements, and in over 50 years of activity, the concern of manhood and its interaction with the space has been central to his work.
During the 1950’s Van Hoeydonck's worked as a geometrical abstractionist. Colour was high on his agenda, and collages from the period often go into three dimensions. From this concretely constructed abstraction of reality, Van Hoeydonck moved to an extreme simplification in his white toy-reliefs of 1955-56. Movement and light-intervention gradually led him from spatial sensibility to space art during the early 1960s.
His most important works of the 1960s include the series Cities of the future, Spacescapes and White Planets (Planetscapes), which contained works that were in consonance with the space conquering race mood, which dominated the world at that time. Since an early age, Van Hoeydonck has harboured a particular interest in the moon and outer space. He started making unpopulated planets in 1959 and went on to make Constellations, Nebulae and Stardust in different shapes and out of different materials. By firing synthetic paint onto the panel, and letting the paint create its own spontaneous chemical reactions, Van Hoeydonck wished to imitate the effect of a meteor crashing into planet. His non-brush technique ranks amongst the revolutionary ZERO techniques of the time such as slashing canvas (Fontana), punctuating (Bonalumi, Piene and Uecker) and burning (Aubertin).
As the public failed to understand these exceptional works, Van Hoeydonck reacted with his series of so-called Boîtes à monocles, where boxes meant for precious objects, were filled with spectacle glasses - a provocative and humoured reference to the ‘blindness’ of people. During the period 1960-1962, Van Hoeydonck continued to with the found object. Following the ‘Boîtes à Monocles’, he fabricated ‘Bonshommes’ out of ready-mades, often found in the port of Antwerp. These robot-like creatures, consisting of wooden planks and metal objects, are pre-figurations of his later ‘Homo Spatiens’ and are contemporary to the British sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi’s humanoid creatures in bronze.
Although Van Hoeydonck was never officially a member of the Zero group, founded in Dusseldorf in 1957, he was always invited to exhibit at the group’s exhibitions in Germany and in Holland. In 1958, Van Hoeydonck was a co-founder of the G58 group who exhibited their works at the Hessenhuis, Antwerp. Van Hoeydonck was also the driving force behind the historic exhibition ‘Vision in Motion, Motion in Vision’ in 1959, which united the artists Yves Klein, Heinz Mack, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, Soto and Van Hoeydonck. By the summer of 1962, Van Hoeydonck was a guest of honor at the XXXI Venice Biennale.
Owing to his interest in space, he was commissioned to produce the only sculpture ever to be placed on the moon. In 1971 the crew of Apollo 15 placed Van Hoeydonck’s Fallen Astronaut on the moon surface, an opportunity granted to the artist that still remains unique today.
Van Hoeydonck’s work was always far ahead of its time. In 1990 Whitford Fine Art held a ground-breaking one-man show of Van Hoeydonck’s 1950’s work, but it is only today that Van Hoeydonck has finally claimed his place in Art History following the well received retrospective show at the Felix Art Museum in Drogenbos, Brussels in 2011.
Public collections include
Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Rome
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Stedelijk Museum, Ostende
Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Bibliography
VAN DEN BUSSCHE, Willy and Paul VAN HOEYDONCK. Paul Van Hoeydonck Retrospectief. Exhibition catalogue, Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Oostende, 1996.
VAN DEN BUSSCHE, Willy. Paul Van Hoeydonck. Lannoo, Belgium, 1980.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2011, Paul Van Hoeydonck: The Abstract Works, FeliXart Museum, Brussels, Belgium.
1995, PMMK, Ostend.
1994, Interior Art Gallery, Brugse Hallen, Bruges.
1993, Recent Sculptures, Whitford Fine Art, London; Lineart, Ghent.
1991, Galerie De Keizer, Antwerp; Lineart, Ghent; Interior Art Gallery, Brugse Hallen, Bruges; Galerie. Arenberg, Antwerp; Galerie Jaski, Amsterdam; Paul Van Hoeydonck: Bonshommes et Boites à Monocles, The Collection of Adrian Mibus at Connaught Brown Gallery, London.
1990, Paul Van Hoeydonck: Paintings and Collages 1955-1959, Whitford Fine Art, London and Lineart Ghent; Abbaye des Cordeliers, Chateauroux; Planets on Jantar Mantar Homage to the Jaipur Observatory; Galerie Forum, Ostend; Barcelona International Art Forum, Barcelona; Sculpture Groups, Ghent.
1989, PMMK, Ghent; Lineart, Ghent; Galerie Forum, Ostend.
1987, Galerie Harmagedon, Kotrijk.
1986, Alden Biezen Space Art in collaboration with the European Spaceprogram, Bilzen; Oostende, Hallen Space ‘86, Ostend; Galerie Guy Pieters, Knokkle.
1985, Techno Galerie, Brussels; Jakob Smits Museum, Mol.
1984, Festival van Vlaanderen, Ghent; Kunstforum, Schelderode; Gallery Stux, Boston; Zeis Observatorium, Amsterdam; Cultureel Centrum, St. Truiden.
1983, Neue Galerie Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen; Casino, Knokkle; Sid Deutsch Gallery, New York.
1982, BP Building, Antwerp; Galerie De Wever, Wakken; De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam.
1981, Galerie Marnix, Geel; Galerie BP, Brussel.
1980, Stedelijk Prentenkabinet, Antwerp ; Galerie De Vuyst, Lokeren.
1979, Sid Deutsch Gallery, New York; Galerij Sfinx, Antwerp ; Galerij Maeyaert, Ostend; Kunstforum, Schelderode.
1978, Buchmann Art Gallery, Kapellen - Antwerp; Interior Art Gallery, Bruges; Koningin Fabioladorp, Deurne; Galerij De Vuyst, Lokeren.
1977, Konsthall, Malmö.
1976, De Warande, Turnhout; Galerij Van Hoeywegen, St. Kwintens - Lennik; Galerij Hüsstege, Amsterdam; Noordbrabants Museum, ‘s Hertogenbosch; Gemeentehuismuseum Arnhem; American Library, Brussels.
1975, Galerij Foncke, Ghent.
1974, Kunstmarkt, Basel; Studio Modern Art, Milano; Galerij Isy Brachot, Brussels; Galerie Bonnier, Genève.
1973, Rotonda della Besan, Milano; Galerie Bonnier, Genève; Talbot Rice Art Center, Edinburgh; Annely Juda Gallery, London, Arte Duchamp, Cagliari; Studio Modern Art, Milano.
1972, Galerij F. Lanzenberg, Brussels; Galerij Koncke, Ghent; Galleria Einaudi; Waddell Gallery, New York; Galerij Multi-Art, Antwerp; Galerij Philippe Chabeau, Brussels, Clark Polak’s Gallery, Los Angeles.
1971, Waddell Gallery, New York; Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Stockholm; Leids Academiegebouw, Leiden.
1970, Palacio National de Bellas Artes, Mexico City; Galerij Foncke, Bruges; Galerij Fonke, Ghent; Galerie Bonnier, Genève; Galerie Engelberts, Genève; Galerie Rive Gauche, Brussels; Second annuel international Moonwalk Festival, Cape Kennedy.
1969, Contemporary Art Museum, Chicago ; Contemporary Art Museum, Houston ; Kunstverein, Freiburg ; Galerij Withofs, Brussels ; Waddell Gallery, New York, Galerij Foncke, Ghent ; National Gallery of Art, Washington.
1968, Galerij Krikhaar, Amsterdam; Galerie Bonnier, Lausanne; Belgisches Haus, Köln; International Monetary Fund, Washington, Galerie Mullet, Stuttgart.
1967, Waddell Gallery, New York; Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels; Galerij
Foncke, Ghent; Galerij Contact, Antwerp.
1966, Galerij Krikhaar, Amsterdam; Galerie Cogéime, Brussels.
1965, Waddell Gallery, New York; Svensk-Franska Konstgalleriet, Stockholm; Galerie Theelen, Essen; Galerie der Spiegel, Köln.
1964, Galerie Iris Clert, Paris; Robert Elkon Gallery, New York; Galleria Apollinaire, Milano; Galleria del Leone, Venezia; Galerie Bonnier, Lausanne; Museum of Fine Arts, Stamford; Galerie Cogiene, Brussels.
1963, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels; AP.I.A.W., Liège.
1962, Galerie Zodiaque, Brussels; Robert Elkon Gallery, New York.
1961, Galerie Iris Clert, Paris; Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels ; Galerij Van der Borght, Brussels; Galerie Sistina, Sao Paulo; Galerie Bernard, Grenchen.
1960, Le cercle de l’art modern ‘Ex Libris’, Ukkel.
1959, Hessenhuis, Antwerp.
1958, Galerij Accent, Antwerp.
1957, Galerie St. Laurent, Brussels.
1956, Galerie St. Laurent, Brussels; Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels.
1955, La Galerie Dutilleul, Brussels.
1954, Galerie Cheval de Verre, Brussels; C.A.W., Antwerp.
1953, Galerij Unicum, Bruges.
1952, Galerij Buyle, Antwerp ; Galerij Unicum, Bruges.