In Memoriam: Belgian artist Jean Claude Block

By John Freeman on December 28, 2025 • ( 0 )

Belgian artist Jean Claude Block, best-known as a member of the Antwerp experimental art collective ERCOLA (Experimental Research Centre of Liberal Arts), has passed away.

“Our dear friend and ERCOLA founder, Jean Claude Block, passed away this week,” the organisation, organised as a non-profit organisation with the ambition to be a productive and informative centre for contemporary art, announced on Instagram. “He was a truly inspiring man dedicated to his art practice and to quietly helping the people around him – to know him was to feel this in abundance.

“His loss has already left an immense hole in our community but his presence is very much still living on the Wolstraat. Thank you for everything, Block.”

Block, aged 84, who also made underground comics in the 1960s and 1970s, helped found ERCOLA in 1968 with Jean-Claude Buytaert, also known as De Rosse. From there, many other artists joined ERCOLA, and self-published a comic magazine, Spruit, comprising six issues published between 1971 and 1972. In its tribute, the Belgian comic site Stripspeciaalzaak notes he contributed to numerous other underground publications and made his own comics and gag series, often under pseudonyms or with playful signatures.

However, he left the comic book world behind relatively early. “From 1972, ERCOLA shifted its focus to broader forms of visual art, graphics, posters and screen printing,”Stripspeciaalzaak reports. “The collective gained fame with psychedelic and socially critical work and worked for cultural institutions such as the ICC in Antwerp.“

“For several decades, he and other artists lived and worked in ERCOLA’s studio in Antwerp, [Godshuis Somers, a former almshouse dating back to the 17th century], resisting the eventual municipal decision to close the building down and sell it for renovation,” Lambiek relates in a Facebook post. “This year, they lost the legal battle. A few months after the eviction, Block whithered away in depression and loneliness, just before Christmas.”

Block and Buytaert had spent their entire professional lives living and working in the historical complex at 31 Wolstraat since 1972. In October Brussels Times reported both had found accommodation, though not new workshops. The 25 artists of the collective must leave the former Godshuis Somers before January.

At present, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp (M HKA) has taken in most of the collective’s archives. Lannoo published the review book, ERCOLA 1968-2018 – 50 years of Kunstcollectief Antwerpen in 2018.

• Lambiek salutes Jean-Claude Block and all other struggling artists in his biography here

• The Brussels Times: Artists set to lose their historic home after 50 years in residence

• Mutual Art: Jean-Claude Block

• ERCOLA on Instagram

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.