Wout Vercammen
(Antwerp,
1938 - Berchem,
2018 )
Wout Vercammen was an artistic jack-ofall-trades. When he made his debut, he was strongly influenced by Jef Verheyen, Antwerp’s G58 Hessenhuis and international Zero. In the early 1960s, he produced some kind of Action Painting. A little later, he was involved in happenings and, together with Panamarenko, Ludo Mich and Hugo Heyrman, became a pioneer of Performance art in Antwerp. Vercammen was also a driving spirit behind the artists’ magazines Happening News (1965) and Artworker Star (1971). From 1969 onwards he became more widely known for his conceptual painting. Belgian (non-)identity is a central theme and is elevated to a form of found object. Vercammen even patented the national tricolour as an artistic concept.
