Reinhoud (Geraardsbergen, 1928 - Parijs, 2007)
The Flemish graphic artist and sculptor Reinhoud first saw the light of
day in Geraardsbergen in 1928, his name was then Reinhoud D’Haese. From
1960 he has been using his first name only.
At the beginning he
trained to be a goldsmith. From 1947 to 1951 he studied at the Ecole
d’Architecture et des Arts Decoratifs in Brussels. At that time he also
got to know Pierre Alechinsky. After he contributed to the rebuilding
of the Ateliers du Marais he met other members of CoBrA too. He made
his first works of art in metal there. Four of those works were shown
at the famous CoBrA exhibition in Liege in 1951.
Only in 1958, a
long time after the movement had fallen apart, Reinhoud got on to doing
his own thing. Since then, for almost half a century, he made works of
art in different kinds of metal, but also, at a small scale, a
population of humorous and mysterious fairytale beings in bread which
completely harmonised with the CoBrA language.
These strange
beings, which sometimes look a bit like insects but also like birds,
were often presented in groups and most of the time they executed human
activities. Reinhoud worked with copper, lead and pewter. He died in
2007 in Paris. His brother, the well known Flemish surrealist Roel
d’Haese and his sister Degga d’Haese are sculptors too and they both
have an eye-catching style.