Marcel Hastir
| Marcel Hastir | |
|---|---|
The Marcel Hastir Workshop
51, Rue du Commerce in Brussels |
|
| Born | 22 March 1906 |
| Died | 2 July 2011 (aged 105) Brussels, Belgium |
| Nationality | Belgium |
| Website | sites |
Marcel Hastir (22 March 1906 – 2 July 2011), was an artist, theosophist and member of the Belgian Resistance during World War II. He lived from 1935 onwards at 51 Rue du Commerce, Brussels, which is also where he set up his studio. From the outset, it was a place where young musicians came to perform.
Today there are two prizes bearing his name which are awarded by the Académie Royale de Belgique (Belgian Royal Academy), one for music and one for painting.
Marcel Hastir was a pupil of artists Constand Montald, Emile Fabry and Jean Delville and of the sculptor Victor Rousseau. During his military service, he took part in preparing the celebrations to mark the centenary of the birth of Belgium (1930). Later he designed the décor of the Chemistry Pavilion at the 1935 Brussels Universal Exhibition.
In 1935, he moved to 51 rue du Commerce in the part of Brussels known as "Quartier Léopold".
In 1940, he managed to secure permission from the German occupying authorities to use his studio for drawing and painting lessons. But this "art school" was above all a cover which enabled young people to meet in relative safety.
These people included Alexandre and Youra Livchitz, and Jean Franklemon, who apart from other acts of defiance came up with a particularly bold plan – to stop a train which was deporting Jews to Auschwitz. Youra Livchitz, Jean Franklemon and their friend Robert Maistriau did so successfully during the night of 19 April 1943, at Boortmeerbeek, enabling many to escape.
When the war was over, he resumed painting, teaching art and restoring older paintings. At this time too, he and his wife Ginette van Rijkevorsel van Kessel (they married in 1946) became more and more active in organizing events of a musical, literary, theatrical and intellectual nature at the Atelier. They formalized these activities in 1949 by setting up a not-for-profit organisation called "L'Atelier – Maison des Arts Coordonnés".
The arts which over the years have found a home at the Atelier are indeed extremely diverse: the Hastirs were among the earliest to appreciate the talents of artists such as Charles Trenet, Jacques Brel, Barbara, Maurice Béjart, Lola Bobesco, Carlo van Neste, and Narciso Yepes, to name but a few hosts of the Atelier. They provided a podium from which these artists, but also intellectuals and men of action, e.g. Lanza del Vasto, Père Dominique Pire and Abbé Pierre, could address the public. Marcel Hastir’s biography contains many anecdotes from this culturally thriving period ("Une Vie", to be republished in 2013). Ginette died in 1983.
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Wikipedia