Now that I have become familiar with the drawings of Klaas Verplancke over the years, it appears that I go overboard and when I see a living being, I think: there’s a Verplancke for you. Joost Swarte
Magritte, Hergé, Ensor, Broodthaers, Ever Meulen - the list of weird and wondrous Belgian artists is long and varied. Add to it the name Klaas Verplancke. Verplancke’s work is strange, yet strangely comforting. Beautifully crafted, and beautifully bonkers. Steven Guarnaccia
Klaas Verplancke (°1964) learned his trade as a draughtsman at the Hoger Sint-Lucasinstituut in Ghent, where he studied Advertising Graphics and Photography from 1982 to 1986. He started his professional career in advertising agencies and continued to do his illustrating after office hours. In 1990, he decided to become a full-time illustrator. Advertising acted as a handy training ground for his new profession, teaching him to analyze issues and to get a story across to the public at large. In the following years, he made countless contributions to magazines and newspapers and illustrated more or less a hundred and fifty books, ranging from cardboard books and picture books for youngsters, to the medieval acid satire of Reinaart the fox and the frank and fearless Erotic Fables for adults. He also wrote and illustrated the picture books Jot, Wortels, Nopjes, Reus and Applesauce.
In so doing he switched back and forth between styles with consummate ease, as well as techniques and materials, which he chose to suit each job and adjusted for the subject in hand. Although computers came to play a major role in developing his illustrations, the conventional drawing, using pencil or pen and paper, remained the cornerstone of his work.
At first glance, Verplancke’s drawings and paintings differ a great deal in appearance and execution. But they always display the qualities that characterize him as an illustrator and designer: a sense of humor that can vary from mild to sardonic, a poetic imagination, a preference for illustrating abstract concepts and universal emotions – and a sideways, surrealistic view of reality.
Over the course of twenty years, Klaas Verplancke has developed from being a serviceable illustrator of stories for youngsters into a hard-headed and imaginative author for all ages, whose drawings take on a life of their own alongside the words they are illustrating.
All of which has resulted in exhibitions both in Belgium and abroad, an invitation as the first Flemish jury-member for the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition in 2004, as well as a whole series of national and international awards and nominations, culminating in winning the Bologna Ragazzi Award for Ozewiezewoze and a Special Mention for Jot (2001), as a finalist in the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration (2006) and five consecutive nominations for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for his oeuvre as a whole.
© photo Paul Willaert