Gabrielle HAARDT (France 1917 - Belgium 2004)
Haardt was a French sculptor living in Belgium. Although never trained in the arts she took to painting in the direct after math of World War II. It is only in the 1960s that Haardt was able to set up a studio and turned her hand to sculpting. For the next 40 years, Haardt and her husband hosted “dimanches soirs” (Sunday nights) surrounded by friends, poets, writers and artists who she would often sculpt.
Alongside her portrait busts, the 60s saw her develop a more abstract style, which she first moulds in clay, plaster and then bronze.