SOFACQ Gallery

Ghent painter and enfant terrible, whose work is driven by passion, eroticism and aggression. Initially studied architecture and later portraiture, but leftthe academy. At the beginning of his career he worked quickly and intuitive. He is a proponent of sexual freedom and against the power of money, "against the academies that must be destroyed, against abstract and figurative painting". When asked if he's a pacifist he replied: "I do not know the word." 

 

With a painting like De kindervriendjes, De Bruyne shows himself as a social seismograph: five "powerful people" (prelates, politicians, businessmen) maltrait naked children above a luxuriously set table. In 1985 the painter exhibited his canvases made in Italy and New York in the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens (Deurle) , in particular portraits of the American writer and poet Charles Bukowski and portraits of himself with his wife. They lived as bohemians in the Chelsea Hotel. In 1991 De Bruyne lived for a few weeks in the attic of the Psychiatric Centre Dr. Guislain in Ghent and had many contacts with patients. He had a personal relationship with this place since his brother was employed at the Psychiatric Centre.

 

Before De Bruyne allows for his work to be exhibited he demands for him and his wife to reside in the art space for some time. During these stays he often gets inspired for new works. The Museum Dr. Guislain is organized a retrospective of De Bruyne's work in 2015.

 

In the fall of 1996, De Bruyne developed cancer, and his wife Octavia took care of him. "He fought until the end. He had prepared everything to be able to request euthanasia; that was illegal at the time. But when the time came, he still wanted to live to the end." He passed away in 1998.