Multi-Art was a publishing house, gallery and art bookstore that became an increasingly influential avant-garde workshop. In 1969, Multi-Art Press International and Multi-Art Gallery & Bookshop were founded by spouses Paul Ibou (1939) and Liliane-Emma Staal (1939–2015). The couple developed a prominent visual language of their own, a very multifaceted graphic practice and a widely branched network. This archival exhibition at M HKA offers an insight into their practice through the presentation of ‘multiples’ (limited editions), photographs, posters, invitation cards, flyers, printed maps, brochures, calendars, and paper art objects.

Paul Ibou (pseudonym for Paul Vermeersch) is still active today as a designer, sculptor, painter, typographer and publisher. A pivotal encounter with the 1958 Group, or G58, at the Antwerp Hessenhuis, led him to adopt a constructivist style. Staal, in turn, was in charge of public relations and organisation.

Multi-Art had established itself at Groendalstraat in Antwerp, after a series of stays and collaborations in New York. Staal and Ibou collaborated with a host of national and international artists, including Oskar Kokoschka, Horst Antes, Shusaku Arakawa, Panamarenko, Luc Deleu & T.O.P. Office, Piero Dorazio, Allen Jones, Günther Kirchberger, Jan Lenica, Marino Marini, Roberte Mestdagh, Serge Poliakoff, Katharina Sievrding, Albert Szukalski, Bernd Urban, Paul Van Hoeydonck, Jef Verheyen, Mark Verstockt, Ben Vautier and many others.

Artists: Paul Ibou & Liliane-Emma Staal