Interview: Freddy Schoofs
Luca Curci talks with Freddy Schoofs during FUTURE LANDSCAPES, third appointment of BORDERS ART FAIR 2023, held in Venice, at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello.

Freddy Schoofs graduated from the Provincial Higher Institute for Art Education in painting and graphics, also in the Municipal Academy of Fine Arts. He is now working as a teacher painting and drawing at the Stedelijke Academie Fine Arts in Hasselt since 1974.

Luca Curci –  What are you currently working on?
Freddy Schoofs – I am currently working on a series of paintings “Futures Landscapes”, what fascinates me most is the human presence, not man but the image of man.

LC –  How much has the city/country in which you grew up/born affected your work as an artist?
FS – The history of the country, the music and above all the polyphony that corresponds to the landscapes, especially in former flanders, the opal coast.

LC – Where do you find your inspiration?
FS – The great flemish primitives, Van Eyck, Breugel, and Rubens translated into contemporary culture.

LC – How do you choose your subjects? Is it a reasoned or an instinctive process?
FS – Not instinctively, but reasoned. I study the entire history of painting and music. The composition and sizes of my paintings are also deliberately chosen. I have made and published a study on the “Descent from the Cross” by Rubens, these paintings hang in northern France.

LC – How do you feel when you see your work completed?
FS – It is never finished, it does not end, one work brings another, and it generates.

LC – What do you think about the concept of this exhibition? How did it inspire you?
FS – It completely fits into my concept.

LC- In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the exhibition’s theme? Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?
FS – Yes, of course, getting to know an international audience in a different way.

LC – Did you enjoy cooperating with us? 
FS- Yes, it was a pleasant professional collaboration.

LC – What do you think about ITSLIQUID Platform?
FS – I think it is a creation for a wide audience, I was pleasantly surprised that you support environmental organizations.