Vic Gentils is an Belgian sculptor. After studying in Antwerp, first at the Koninklijk Akademie voor Schone Kunsten (1934–8) and then at the Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten (1940–42), he progressed from Expressionism towards Art informel and went through a neo-Surrealist phase in 1950. By 1954 he was attempting to escape from painting by integrating objects and using a variety of materials in his work. His first reliefs were produced in 1960 and were made up of fragments of old moulded frames and wooden laths blackened by burning. Shortly afterwards he began to make assemblages of mutated objects, investigating the possibilities of wood and extending his pictorial vocabulary by using parts of pianos, as in Musical Relief (1963; Brussels, Musées Royaux B.-A.), as well as cupboards, balustrades, pulleys, shoe-trees and hat-blocks.
