Jean-Pierre Ghysels is a Belgian sculptor born in 1932. Graduated in 1953 from the Maredsous Art School, the French government offered him a scholarship that allowed him to follow Ossip Zadkine's courses at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris and those of direct size at the Beaux-Arts. In 1957, he won the Godecharle Prize, thanks to which he went on a trip to India and Nepal, via Lebanon, between 1958 and 1960.

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It was when he returned, in the 1960s, that he went from figuration to abstraction. Ghysels seeks, through abstraction, a poetic expression. His approach resonates with an artistic trend described as “lyrical abstraction”: the artist dialogues with the material. He sculpts round, soft and simple shapes out of beaten copper, raw bronze or molten brass. Their finish is always in a patina color chart. It alternates between full and empty spaces, allowing the effects of light to play.

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Ghysels' works are exhibited in numerous Belgian public and private collections. His sculptures can be found in several cities in Belgium and abroad, such as Copenhagen, Lisbon, Moscow, New York and Johannesburg. His work was celebrated in 2022 during a retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium.

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