VINK Rétrospective

Vink - whose real name is NGUYEN PHUOC Vinh Khoa - is a Belgian cartoonist. One of the most talented illustrators working in a realistic style and an unrivalled colourist, Vink has been using direct colours since the 1980s and is something of a pioneer in the field. He used mixed techniques in the early days but later switched to watercolour, his trademark medium. He pays equal attention to every aspect of the creative process, his drawing and application of colour providing a perfect vehicle for the narrative.

Vink is best known for his series Le Moine fou, which he published in Charlie Mensuel in 1983, and with Éditions Dargaud from 1984. Written, drawn and coloured by the artist, the series tells the story of a young girl searching for her parents in Song-dynasty China. The second volume won the City of Brussels's Grand Prix Saint-Michel in 1985, and from 2000 to 2010 Vink continued the series under the title Les Voyages de He Pao.

In 2003, he published a new series, Le Passager, in which a man named Charles is whisked away by the wind during a kite-flying competition and lands in an imaginary country. While using the same medium and technique (watercolour and direct colour), the series adopts an ever-more fanciful approach to narration and image.

From 24 March to 9 April 2022, the Huberty & Breyne Gallery is proud to be showing thirty-five original plates from these three series, executed between 1984 and 2008, together with various pencil sketches that demonstrate the complex creative process involved in producing the finished plates. Completing the exhibition are two impressive works: one, a large oil painting that can be seen as quintessential Vink, the culmination of forty years of creative activity; the other, a magnificent tribute to Moebius, a regal image of the great artist sitting astride the clouds on his gold pencil.

Works available to view online from Thursday 24 March 2022