“I’m searching for the vibrations which geometric lines can only render imperfectly. I paint in total purity!” Engel-Pak
“The pioneers of Abstract Painting in Belgium and elsewhere were generally more taken with geometric and architectural concerns. In this respect Engel-Pak - who was already experimenting with a freer form of Abstraction in the thirties - appeared as a highly original and exploratory artist, well ahead regarding the new pictorial expressions of the 20th century.”
“ Dionysian in nature, propelled by instinctual feelings and bold improvisations, Engel-Pak created a body of work, whose force overshadows its form, vibrating to the sound of the Shaman’s drum. In 1947 he wrote to his friend and art critic Leon-Louis Sosset: “ I’m searching for the vibrations which geometric lines can only render imperfectly. I paint in total purity!”
Serge Goyens de Heusch Dr. In Art History
Source: Engel-Pak, Pioneer of Abstraction, 2004, Didier Devillez Editeur
“Engel-Pak est le premier des peintres abstraits de Wallonie. Le révéler, ce serait le consacrer. Qu’attend le monde officiel pour lui rendre l’hommage qu’il mérite ? “
Alain Bosquet
Source: Pol Vandromme, La vie litteraire, Edition de la Différence, Paris
“This art, free of images and deliberate shapes, capturing his instincts with capricious, fluid forms and violent chromatic contrasts, evoke interior landscapes, both tormented and ecstatic, as well as a cosmic dimension, and a secret, germinating realm, organic in nature.”
Serge Goyens de Heusch Dr. In Art History
Source: Engel-Pak, Pioneer of Abstraction, 2004, Didier Devillez Editeur
“It is as a manifestation of their own nature that Engel-Pak assembles these touches (of colour); as a sign of his deepest nature, his innermost vulnerability, his secrecy, and also his temperament which reaches us directly, unprotected by theoretic constraints.”
Paul Fierens, Conservateur en Chef aux Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, 1947-1957
"Rhythm, purity, lines, colours", these were the words hanging on Engel-Pak's studio walls for many years. Such were the vital aspirations of his creation, the demands of his "innermost necessity", to use Kandinsky's expression. These for words also shed light upon the surprising speed at which this painter from Spa evolved within a few years, from a representational Expressionism to Lyrical Abstraction, in which significance was inherent to the powers of painting: the colours, lines and rhythms which propelled the works"
Serge Goyens de Heusch Dr. In Art History
Source: Engel-Pak, Pioneer of Abstraction, 2004, Didier Devillez Editeur
Self portrait, 1923
“Au fond je suis à la tête de l’abstrait symbolique avec d’autres peintres et aussi l’abstrait romantique” Engel-Pak
Letter of condolence from Marcel Duchamp to Madame Pak, 1966
Engel Pak, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp. February 1942