Bronze sculpture in 3 parts by Andre Dekeijser – Titled: Symbiose VIII, 1980
Bronze sculpture by Andre Dekeijser – Titled: Symbiose VIII, 1980
Bronze sculpture in 3 parts partly polished and partly left rough artwork is signed and numbered on base. One of an edition of 15 signed and numbered bronze sculptures.
Dimensions: 12.5 x 15 x 10 cm – 5 x 5.9 x 4.7 in.
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Andre DEKEIJSER (1924 – 2013)
Andre Dekeijser (Andre Dekeyser) was born in Brussels on August, 1 in 1924 and died in Brussels on December, 9 in 2013. He was a Belgian contemporary sculptor known for his abstract and monumental work primarily in copper and bronze.
Andre Dekeijser lived in Port-Francqui, now Ilebo in the Congo, from 1926 to 1929, before moving back to Belgium. – He quickly developed his artistic talent and studied graphic arts and drawing at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles.
After the Second World War, he worked for several years in the ceramics workshop of Alexandre Geufanstein before heading off in search of his deceased father’s legacy in the Congo in 1952. There, he worked at the Geographical Institute of the Belgian Congo (I.G.C.B.). It’s during that period, that he started created his first sculptures which were exhibited in Kinshasa in 1957. The influence of African art was already clearly apparent in his work. André Dekeijser started a family and returned to Belgium for 2 years where he worked as the cartographer of the provincial domain of Mirwart, but soon he left with his wife and two children for an adventure in São Paulo, Brazil.
Upon his return 3 years later he decided to dedicate himself to sculpture. He joined his friend André Eijberg before establishing a workshop of his own where he returned to terracotta and began experimenting with patina and new materials like blocks of Ytong a kind of aerated concrete, whose low price allowed him to create oversized pieces. He also worked with wood and stone and began casting work in bronze, polishing some parts and creating patinas on others.
Having manipulated terracotta, wood, stone and Y’tong, Andre Dekeijser focused on copper and bronze. The polishing and application of patinas on bronze pieces increased their relief and rendered them tactile. His first monumental pieces were created in copper. He cut, soldered and applied patinas to red copper creating larger formats whose intertwining shapes evoke the notion of the couple. In order to ascertain pieces could withstand enlargement, small clay or wax models were submitted to a test of a series of figurines diminishing in size.
Having constructed several homes in the Congo and Brazil with his own hands, Andre Dekeijser created the project and built the model of a sculpture-home that was never completed despite the genuine interest of several architects. He also used his artistic talent to illustrate a textbook for students on the practice and techniques of Osteopathy. For his own pleasure he drew several comic strips with no intention of publishing. He also created bronze and silver jewelry using the lost-wax casting process.
In the early 1980s his study of forms took on a more sensual aspect. The duality of the sexes is present in this period. The duality of couples in shapes that interpenetrate, that embrace without touching that are nothing without the other is perhaps the subject most fully developed by the artist. Other themes explored include the mechanics of objects that make up a puzzle whereby the fun lies in studying the empty spaces and surfaces of each piece by taking them apart and trying to put them back in the correct order. These pieces require the spectator to touch and play with the objects in addition to looking at them.
During this mechanical period, Andre Dekeijser created numerous drawings for astonishing machines that inevitably solicited the question: «what could they possibly be used for? »
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Date:
September 9, 2025
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