The sea, that amazing sculptor - Jean-Michel Folon

Breakwater at Vanbunnenplein, Knokke

About the artwork

Folon’s sculpture on the breakwater is inspired by the works of René Magritte. However, the little man with a hat also resembles Inspector Maigret from the books of the same name by Georges Simenon. The name of the work was inspired by Marguerite Yourcenar’s art essay ‘Time, that great sculptor’.

About the artist

Jean-Michel Folon is one of the great exponents of 20th-century Belgian art. His main source of inspiration was the insensitivity and harshness of this world, transformed by his poetic gift and by his subtle, yet sometimes biting humour. As a child, he would spend his holidays in Knokke.