OSCAR DE CLERCK (Ostend, Belgium, 1892-Sint-Stevens-Woluwe, Belgium, 1968). "Sea nymph", 1930.

OSCAR DE CLERCK (Ostend, Belgium, 1892-Sint-Stevens-Woluwe, Belgium, 1968).
"Sea Nymph", 1930.
Painted terracotta.
Signed.
Exhibitions: "European sculpture in the 20th century", European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), Barcelona, 2014.
Measurements: 72 cm. high.
Considered, along with Oscar Jespers, as one of the great renovators of Belgian sculpture after the First World War, Oscar de Clerck developed a work in the Art Deco style. As can be seen in "Sea Nymph", his sculptures are brimming with modernity and are based on sieved cubist forms reminiscent of Jacques Lipchitz, among other artists.
Born into a modest Belgian family, Oscar de Clerck came into contact with the art world thanks to Henri Permeke, a family friend, painter and curator of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Ostend. During the interwar period, he devoted himself to sculpture, influenced by the Cubist and Futurist movements. In the 1930s, he returned to a more classical figuration. His numerous busts bear witness to his personal aesthetic quest, combining classical figuration and simplification of forms.