Gaston Bertrand worked in Brussels as a painter, illustrator and engraver and was one of the important figures of the Jeune Peinture Belge. Encouraged by Robert Delevoy he started to experiment and evolve to non-figurative painting. The dialectics between figurative and abstract remains a central element throughout his whole career. The landscapes and architecture he got to know on his travels through France, Italy and Spain, were an important inspiration for the artist. Out of these formal elements he distilled a combination of plastic characters. He used the same approach for portraits which come to life in an undefined space. Space plays a main role in this oeuvre with his strictly built up linear compositions.

De Prix Gaston Bertrand

Awarded by the foundation ‘to a Belgian painter at least 45 years who developed his own approach and own resources to make his inner world visible.’