Luc Hoenraet was born in 1941 in Aalst. He studied at the Higher Institute of Saint Luke in Schaerbeek.
Luc Hoenraet is a material painter, draftsman, etcher and lithographer. His works can best be described as palimpsests. He first meticulously applies a background composition, after which he starts scratching through this composition. Hoenraet’s work therefore belongs to lyrical abstract art, because the work is created spontaneously – but in a certain sense reasoned. To achieve the scratched effect, Hoenraet mixes his paint with sand, resin or other materials. Hoenraet’s oeuvre is characterized by the sign of the cross, both in a universal and religious sense. Sometimes the cross is mathematical or purely plastic, sometimes as a sign of faith, suffering or death. Moreover, Hoenraet also refers to graffiti culture with his works. With his work he therefore goes against the notion that graffiti, cracks, peeling and erosion are signs of decay or stain. The ‘dead’ matter comes to life in his works, as it were.
Together with Hilde Van Sumere, Rik Poot and André Beullens, Luc Hoenraet belonged to the Flemish Brabant Group.
