Bernard VERCRUYCE
naive art
Bernard VERCRUYCE
76 rue du Doctor Gachet
95430 AUVERS-SUR-OISE
In a few words...
Self-taught engraver painter born in 1949 in Reims, he lives and works in Auvers-sur-Oise.
Very young, he was fascinated by the painting of his grandfather, Camille Van Hyfte (1886-1966), a retired farmer who became a Sunday painter, an authentic naive painter. He knows then that he will do like him. He then moved to Auvers-sur-Oise with his parents and happened to be the neighbor of the house of Doctor Gachet, friend of Vincent Van Gogh.
From 1971, he began to paint regularly and exhibited for the first time with his sculptor friend, Robert Noël in 1973 at the Center d'animation Culturel de Cergy-Pontoise.
In 1978, he met the art critic and collector Anatole Jakovsky, “the Pope of the naive” who would encourage him all his life.
He quickly discovers engraving and enters under contract at the Jacques Boulan gallery (Paris) in 1980 where he will be "the naive of the stable".
From 1985, his work turned towards animal art and more particularly feline. Whether oil paintings, watercolors, drawings or engravings, cats, his cats, symbolizing freedom for the artist, are honored with delicacy and mischief.
Through his most recent paintings, he denounces "while trying to look pretty" and "without ever showing sad things" the disappearance of animal species, the degradation of universal heritage and animal abuse.
“I did the job of my life”. Indeed, Bernard Vercruyce has participated in a very large number of individual and collective exhibitions. His works are exhibited in more than forty museums in France and abroad.
Since 2006, he has also been the leader of the Naïve Art section of the Comparaison fair (Grand-Palais, Paris), and the curator of the fair from 2014 to 2017.
He is one of the four founding members of the Charles François DAUBIGNY Museum in the city of Auvers-sur-Oise (1984). President of the DAUBIGNY Museum from 2009 to 2012.
He is an honorary member of the Salon National des Beaux-Arts, Carrousel du Louvre (Paris) and former president of the engraving section.
In a few pictures...
Some references
On October 11, 1994, Bernard Vercruyce was named Academician of the Cat by the Accademia dei gatti magici in Rome for all of his work.
1998-2016, he produced the poster for the Summer Music Festival in Colorado Springs / USA each year.
2000, the Museum of Orléans devotes a retrospective of his animal work to him (oils and watercolours).
2001-2006, he produced the poster for the Salon Art-Nature-Animaux in Paris.
2004, exhibition of his watercolors at the International Cat Museum in the city of Richelieu.
2005, following the donation of approximately 300 of his works, drawings, watercolours, oils and especially engravings, the International Museum of Naïve Art Anatole Jakovsky of the city of Nice organizes the retrospective of his engraved work, (Eaux-fortes et aquatints) thus ensuring the sustainability of the artist's genesis. (March 24 to May 9, 2005)
2019, the Museum of Old Toulouse (31000) exhibits his works as part of the "Love Animal" Colloquium.