Albert De Deken - On the terrace.

On the terrace. Watercolor. Drawn in pencil.
Albert De Deken (Schoten, September 7, 1915 – Kapellen, March 24, 2003)
He was a Belgian visual artist. At the Antwerp Academy he took lessons with Alfons Proost and Baron Isidore Opsomer, who always supported him. He was in class with Vic Gentils, Jack Godderis and art photographer Filip Tas. In 1948, after winning the Camille Huysmans Prize, he went to Paris and studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière with Emile-Othon Friesz "le grand fauve" and met the painter André Dunoyer de Segonzac at a retrospective at La Charpentier Gallery. , for which he had great regard. Albert De Deken had five daughters and a son. From 1954 to 1980 he taught at the Antwerp Art Academy. He was a teacher during the orientation years and later during the painting specialization years. His students included Panamarenko, Fred Bervoets, Wannes Van de Velde, Walter Brems, and Linda Loppa, later director of the Antwerp Fashion Academy. His last student is his son-in-law Christian Goedtkindt, who, among other things, took care of his exhibitions and catalogs and now paints under the artist name Xtian. Since the early 1950s, De Deken has gone on annual holiday to the Flemish Coast with the family. Oostduinkerke was the seaside resort where they spent the summer, he made by far his best paintings here. Beaches, the sea and the hinterland of West Flanders continued to fascinate him. The sea, the beaches and dike views of Knokke and Duinbergen, the fishing ports and old fishing boats remained the subjects to be painted. In addition to painting landscapes and still lifes, the portrait and in particular the children's portrait had become his trademark. The portraits of his children appeal to the imagination. Also worked in France (around Paris, the Mediterranean coast, le Morvan), in Scheveningen and traveled to Virginia USA (1988) where he brought back about 25 works).
Recognitions • Prizes: 1938 "Als Ick Kan", 1939 "Prize Nottebohm", 1942 "Prize Van Lerius", 1947 "Prize Van Lerius, "Prize Camille Huysmans", 1950 "Prize David O'Selznick", 1952 "Prize Marine Painters", 1985 "Province of Antwerp Prize", 1994 "Laureate Culture Prize R.Majean Schoten". • In the year 2000, exactly on his 85th birthday, De Deken received a retrospective at the Campo gallery on the Vlaamse kaai in Antwerp. • In 2001, an exhibition about De Deken was held in the Jakob Smits Museum. • In December 2015, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth, a monument was unveiled for De Deken on the Churchilllaan in Schoten near Antwerp, near the place where his birthplace once stood. • Work owned by the Flemish Community, the Province of Antwerp & Ghent, the Print Room and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp with 2 works. Belfius Bank Collection. Municipal councils of Schoten and Essen and St.Niklaas. Kerkfabriek Brasschaat and Kleine Horendonk, private private collections in Belgium and abroad. • Included in the collection of the University Campus Antwerp with 2 paintings and 1 watercolor • Drawings with portraits of artists added to the collection of the AMVC Antwerp