René CARCAN

Biography

René Carcan is a Belgian engraver and watercolourist. He originally trained in sculpture at the Academy of Saint-Josse-Ten-Noode and then, from 1941 to 1946, in painting at the Academy of Brussels.

From 1952, he exhibited his drawings in Brussels.  He left for Italy for a while, a place that would remain a great source of inspiration for him. Back in Brussels, it was at the instigation of his historian and poet friend, Philippe Roberts-Jones, that he decided to take up engraving. From 1960 to 1965, he attended the Parisian workshop of Johnny Friedländer, who introduced him to the techniques of colour etching. In 1963, he was a founding member of the Cap d'Encre group, together with experienced engravers such as Pierre Alechinsky, Gabriel Belgeonne, Francis De Bolle, Lismonde, Marc Laffineur and Gustave Marchoul. Cap d'Encre produced 5 Portefolios until 1970.

At this time, his reputation as an aquafortist had already spread far beyond our borders, as he exhibited in Paris, the United States, Tokyo, Ljubljana and Krakow.

A productive engraver, he produced just over 800 prints. A polymorphous artist, always tempted by experimentation, he also happily devoted himself to sculpture and goldsmithing or became the illustrator for poet friends such as André Sempoux, Jean Orizet and Philippe Roberts-Jones.

The 1970s was one of the most prolific years of his career, and he continued to exhibit his prints all over the world: the United States, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, France and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

In the early 1980s, he literally conquered West Germany, exhibiting successfully and repeatedly in some twenty major cities.

His old master, Johnny Friedländer, opened the René Carcan Foundation in person on 20 October 1989, followed - among others - by the Brazilian Arthur Piza, the Israeli Tuvia Beeri and the Japanese Hasegawa, the Spaniard Antoni Clavé (1991), the Austrian Hundertwasser (1992), the Italian Avati (1992) and the German Horst Janssen (1993).

René Carcan died in Belgium in early 1993. His works are part of numerous public collections, such as the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels, the Musée communal d'Ixelles, the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels, the Centre de la Gravure et de l'Image imprimée in La Louvière, the Cabinet des Estampes et des Dessins in Liège, the Musée de l'UCL (Donation Serge Goyens de Heusch) in Louvain-la-Neuve, the Musée Royal de Mariemont and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris.