Willoos. Life in Colour

Willoos: Life in Colour is a book that stems from a relationship patiently built up over the years. For a long time, the painter Willoos has accompanied and supported the Musée de la Grande Ardenne. It was therefore only natural that this friendship should take on a more fully realised form: the organisation of a retrospective scheduled for 2026, dedicated to the Ardennes.

Willoos, through many ties, belongs to this Ardennes region that the Museum aims to promote and pass on. And yet, his painting refuses to be confined to it. It does not replicate the region’s expected imagery or conventional forms. It has also taken shape elsewhere, through the journeys, stays and experiences that have profoundly transformed his way of seeing and painting.

This retrospective is immortalised in this book, the result of a collective effort, a convergence of perspectives that intersect without ever merging. Those who contributed to its creation form a circle of close friends and collaborators. Their texts shed light on the many facets – both familiar and lesser-known – of Willoos’s paintings.

May these pages offer you the pleasure of (re)discovering Willoos’s work spanning more than sixty years. A body of work that defies simple categorisation, combining multiple influences with a quest for the essential: a return to the line, to drawing, to what gives structure to the image.

👉 Visit the exhibition → Willoos. Life in Colour