Joseph Willaert, 'Diploma', Coloured pencil on paper, 1973

Diploma 'for being an angel' awarded to Belgian painter Nadine Vanlierde by Joseph Willaert (1936-2014).

Coloured pencil and ink on paper. 
35 x 21 cm, framed. 

"Gistel 17 februari 1973
DIPLOMA
toegekend aan
Nadine Vanlierde
omdat zij EEN ENGEL is. 
De voorzitter: Joseph Willaert"

As a visual artist Joseph Willaert was self-taught. He developed a style of painting that leaned towards hyperrealism and pop art but consciously contained a degree of naivety. He liked to draw inspiration from the world he was familiar with: his home, the village and village life, the Flemish landscape, Flemish customs and habits. His paintings always show a clear, delineated image, bright and with pure use of colour but without shadow. Sometimes he combined his paintings with three-dimensional elements that he incorporated into them or placed in front of them.

His fame peaked in the 1970s and 1980s. He was commissioned to do the credits for the television programme "Kunstzaken" (1984). It depicted a letterbox. Willaert was also commissioned to decorate the Brussels metro station Clemenceau. He created 38 paintings in arched niches for this purpose. Another highlight was his selection for the Belgian entry for the Venice Biennale in 1976. He received several awards: a mention in the Prix Jeune Peinture Belge in 1968, a silver medal in the European Prize for Painting of the City of Ostend in 1971 and a laureate of the Constantijn Janes Prize in 1971.