On November 13, 2026 at 4 p.m. we kindly invite you to the opening of the painting exhibition "TORCQUÉ. UNFRAMED LIFE" , dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the birth of the artist Arie Torqúe.
About the artist: Arie Torcqué (1941–2023)
Torcqué was born on July 2, 1941 in Rotterdam (Netherlands). From 1956 to 1960 he studied at the School of Graphic Arts in Rotterdam, from 1958 to 1962 he studied at the Rotterdam Academy of Fine Arts, from 1962 to 1966 he studied illustration and design in Amsterdam (Famous Artists Schools). He studied the subtleties of artistic creation privately with famous Dutch artists. The artist has held more than a dozen solo exhibitions in the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, France and Lithuania, was a participant in 18 group and international exhibitions and won four prizes.
The author's wide creative field encompassed different art forms: Torcqué created lithographs for a long time, worked in the fields of design and advertising, illustrated geography, history, and nature textbooks for schools, created murals for the interiors and exteriors of various restaurants, hotels, and amusement parks in Spain, and later devoted himself to painting for a long time, also wrote poetry, prose texts, and worked as a photo correspondent. In life and work, Torcqué loved satire and black humor, and sought to have his works free the imagination, encourage reflection, raise questions, and discuss.
The artist lived in Spain for a large part of his life, actively participated in the political and cultural life of the city of Denia, founded his own printing house and museum, and had a large and valuable collection of cameras and video cameras. The artist was very well-read, had a large and impressive library of art publications and scientific literature, and also loved opera, ballet, classical music, and had a rich collection of music recordings. In his youth, Torcqué played football (he was a goalkeeper), had achieved good sports results in athletics, worked as an athletics coach, and was interested in football all his life. Torcqué was an interesting and versatile personality, an excellent conversationalist, a good cook, and a person of unconventional thinking – he had purchased a church in Holland and built an impressive house there.
Since 2005, the artist has lived and worked in Lithuania, where he intensively painted, wrote poems, and satirical prose texts. In 2012, he participated in an exhibition in Rotterdam. At eleven exhibitions held in Lithuania, the artist also exhibited cycles of paintings created in Lithuania.
In 2011, Torcqué presented the album “Echo of Silence”, the crowning achievement of his creative activity. The album reflects Torcqué’s work since 1957. The artist selected 140 works created in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Lithuania for the book. They were supplemented by poems by Dutch poets, Mažeikiai Asta Brazaitienė, Sara Poisson, Rima Sadauskienė, Birutė Steponavičienė and Vaclovas Navickas, as well as Torcqué’s own poetic texts in Spanish and Dutch. All these poems are an extension, interpretation or rather an echo of the paintings, which are connected to the works of art by their theme, separate motifs and mood. “It is common for artists to illustrate books by writers and poets, but I wanted to do the opposite – for poets to complement the paintings with their poems,” said the artist Torcqué.
In 2021, to commemorate Torcqué's 80th birthday, the book "Deep Black" was published, which prints selected cartoons drawn by the author since 1964. Some of them were printed in Dutch and Spanish newspapers and magazines, but most of them have not been published or exhibited anywhere.
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