Fred Bervoets is a Belgian painter, the founder of a so-called Antwerp style of painting, often linked to the German Neue Wilde, the neo-expressive movement in the 1980s. He spends his youth amidst the industrial smoke of Zwijndrecht’s port near Antwerp, growing up during and in the aftermath of World War II. Characterised by numerous thematic and stylistic periods, Bervoet’s oeuvre draws from a vast register of references, marked by the particular context that surrounded his youth; rising artistic movements; painters such as Pieter Bruegel, Vincent Van Gogh or James Ensor; as well as specific milestones or minor events in his life and the lives of a whole generation.
Influenced by the Cobra movement in his early works from the late 1960s, Fred Bervoets soon introduces snakes and gutlike figures in his paintings, portrayed in highly expressive scenes. Those motifs prefigure his renowned Spaghetti series from the early 1970s, large-scale and intensely narrative canvases depicted in psychedelic atmospheres. In the following years, Fred Bervoets develops a particular interest in etching. First as a side activity, he begins mixing techniques, combining dry needle etching with painting with nitric acid. Bervoets’ subsequent works reveal emotions marked by the loss of his painter friend Jan Cox in 1980. From 1987 on, his paintings start to take the form of mutilated self-portraits, creating works with autobiographical references and complex anecdotes that are more alienating than narrative. Parallel to his career as a painter, he is a long-standing teacher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. His rampant imagination, astute knowledge, enthusiasm, and vitality make him a profoundly appreciated teacher and a father to a whole generation of artists.
Major exhibitions include A Museum in the Making, a duo show with Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale, AZ USA; Sanguine. Luc Tuymans on Baroque organised at the M HKA, Antwerpen, Belgium, and Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy. He also participated in the 17th Biennale of São Paulo. His work is included in major public collections such as the S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium; KMSKA, Antwerp, Belgium, M KHA, Antwerp, Belgium; and Mu Zee, Ostende, Belgium, Museum De Reede, Antwerp, Belgium, among others. Since 1969, he has been represented by the gallery De Zwarte Panter Antwerp, Belgium.
