Erik Pevernagie

He has been brought up in Brussels, a unique melting pot of two cultures (Latin and Germanic). He was the son and pupil of the expressionist painter, Louis Pevernagie (1904-1970). The artist spent his youth at the foot of the legendary Manneken Pis, a symbol of this bilingual town. He has been infused by a lively, surrealistic world, as it has been described by Michel de Ghelderode. After expanding his knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic cultural heritage, he became Master in Germanic Philology at the Free University of Brussels (1961). He traveled worldwide, took a postgraduate degree at Cambridge University (UK) and became a Professor at Erasmus University. As he has always been interested in communication and international relations, he founded a social and cultural club in 1973: 'Recreative International Centre" or "RIC". For that purpose, he acquired two boats in Brussels Port: "Ric's River Boat" and "Ric's Art Boat". This gave him the opportunity to meet interesting characters, like Claude Lelouche, Atom Egoyan, Roy Lichtenstein, Hugo Claus etc. He became a Member and Associated Academician of Accademia Internazionale del Verbano di Lettere, Arti, Scienze.