Litho Belgica, 2014
Shortly before his death in 1981, Stefan Hertmans grandfather gave him a couple of old notebooks. For years he was afraid to open them, but when he did he stumbled across some unexpected secrets.
His grandfather's life was marked by his impoverished childhood in pre-1900 Ghent, by gruesome experiences as a soldier on the front during WWI and by a great love who died young from the Spanish flu. It is a personal tale about Corporal Urbain Martien, a painter whose life was torn to shreds during the First World War. For the rest of his life he converted his grief into tranquil paintings. In an attempt to get to the bottom of his grandfather's life Hertmans wrote down the memories he had of the man. He quotes from the diaries and analyses the paintings.
War and Turpentine is a poignant search for a life that coincided with the tragic events of the 20th century and is an attempt to give a posthumous, almost mythical expression to that life. Litho Belgica is a visual
interpretation of Stefan Hertmans novel War and Turpentine.
