Rik Poot (1924-2007) - Vier ruiters

Rik Poot
"Vier ruiters"
Lithography on Velin
13/30
1984
74 x 55 cm

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rik_Poot

Rik Poot (1924-2006) was born in the Flemish part of Brabant, more precisely in the working-class neighborhood Far-West, the first social housing district of the municipality Vilvoorde. Poot studied modern humanities at the Royal Atheneum in Vilvoorde and then took lessons at the Academy of Molenbeek. As a child Poot was captivated by the artisanal work of his father, who was a bronze caster and made grave ornaments. The annual markets in Vilvoorde, in particular the horses that were judged and traded there, left a lasting impression on him. During the war years 1944-45 he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. In 1948 he settled in Grimbergen.

Poot received several prizes in succession: First Prize Open-Air Exhibition Anderlecht (1948), the Godecharle Prize and the Prize of the City of Liège (1949). He then undertook study trips to France and Italy thanks to a winning grant to study the art of Antiquity and the Renaissance there. In 1953 he won the Second Prize of Rome, First Prize Open-Air Exhibition Vorst and the First Prize City of Brussels. In 1954, together with Roel D'Haese, he received an honorable mention in the Prix Jeune Sculpture. In 1959 he received the Coopal Prize. From 1962 to 1984 he was professor of Monumental Sculpture at the National Institute for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Ter Kameren, Brussels. Poot’s sculptures are almost all in public spaces. For the courthouse of Turnhout lies his Resting Naiad. He designed in 1982 the "Ode aan een bergrivier" in bronze for the Herrmann-Debroux metro station in Brussels.

In the garden of the Elzenveld in Antwerp, his statue of the writer Maurice Gilliams found a place. On the ashlar pedestal stands this text by Gilliams: The unrest gives wings to the imagination which became the motto of the novel The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld.