Bram Kinsbergen
Henri Van Straten was a Flemish artist. He was one of the famous "De Vijf" who renovated Flemish woodcarving after the First World War. He became one of the most virtuoso and refined modern Flemish woodcarvers.
In 1919, Van Straten joined the Lumière association, an internationalist and pacifist society of artists from Antwerp. The society also published the literary magazine Lumière (1919-1923) under the same name. His active membership in the Lumière group led to him being promoted to the magazine's resident illustrator.
At the same time, he systematically participated in the many group exhibitions that Lumière organized nationally and abroad and got to know many foreign artists personally or through their work.
He disappeared without a trace in September 1944, when he was on foot from Antwerp to Kalmthout, amid the hasty liberation of Antwerp, probably during the bombardment of Merksem.
Almost as mysterious as this disappearance without a trace, many aspects of his impressive oeuvre remain unknown to a wide audience. Henri van Straten has returned to artistic interest since 1960, through the many group exhibitions with work by "De Vijf"; Henri van Straten himself, Jan and Jozef Cantré, Frans Masereel and Joris Minne.
