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TravelsJL

Travel is important in Jef Lambrecht's work – he travelled widely and himself noted that it was the train that passed by the back yard of his family home which inspired him to travel from the onset: to broaden his horizons beyond the relatively rural town he grew up in... grasping his first chance to do so by going to pick tobacco in Canada and stopping by New York as a teenager... to never look back.

Not only did he travel the globe far and wide as a reporter for State radio, he travelled extensively throughout – as a student hitch-hiking, and later would regularly accompany groups on cultural study trips as a guide... especially in the Middle East... he would also go on excursions with artists and photographers, and obviously travelled privately whenever he could...

He wrote extensively during his travels, making notes, drawing sketches, diagrams, explanations and considerations, as well a prose and poetry – he like to write while under way, preferably by train... and upon return would often rework and create more artistic versions of his notes in series of travelogue style suites. He would send mail-art 'pamphletters' from exotic locations, and write about his progress, describing scenery and circumstance.

Though most of the original notes and drawings (travel journals) are in the Literary archive (Letterenhuis) the resulting drawings and bookworks are kept in the CKV/AACF... as well as the mail-art and some correspondence... as well as photographs – of which many are informative, touristic travel impressions, but some are more artistic and can sometimes be considered 'works'...

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