This morning, Friday 20 March, fr Albert Carpentier died in Antwerp. Born on Sept 4, 1918 in Zandvliet near Antwerp (Belgium), he made his first profession in the Order of Preachers in the Province of Belgium in 1936 and was ordained priest in 1944. After studying at the Saint Luke’s School of Fine Arts in Ghent, he left for Japan in 1949, where he first studied Japanese art in Tokyo. Throughout his long presence in Japan alongside the friars of the Province of Canada, he made representations of great Dominican figures and biblical scenes, whether in serigraphy, linography or stained glass. The use of large black outlines and the rendering of large hands echo the Flemish expressionism style he saw in his youth. In Japan, he decorated several churches and chapels. For the convent Saint Albert-le-Grand in Montreal, the provincial house of his province of adoption, he painted large sized paintings. After his return to Belgium in November 2014, fr Albert continued to work in the room of his retirement home, where he joined the Risen Christ at the age of 101. May he rest in peace!
