A prize for Surrealist heritage

23rd of July 2024

In 2024, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Surrealism. The opportunity to highlight our Prize Jacqueline Nonkels! This prize is awarded to an initiative that contributes to the conservation and promotion of Belgian Surrealist heritage. The current call remains open until 27 November 2024. Apply now!

Jacqueline Nonkels

Jacqueline Nonkels (1916-2007) was a friend of René and Georgette Magritte but also of Marcel Mariën and rubbed shoulders with many artists in the Surrealist movement in Belgium. She created the Jacqueline Delcourt-Nonkels Fund within the King Baudouin Foundation with the aim of preserving and making available to everyone René Magritte’s drawings, Marcel Mariën’s collages and correspondence, photos, books and objects relating to the Surrealist movement in Belgium that were in her possession. In accordance with her wishes, these objects and documents have been entrusted to Belgian institutions (the AML, MRBAB-Magritte Museum, René Magritte Jette Museum and the Photography Museum of Charleroi) in order to preserve them and make them available to the general public.

Support for our Surrealist heritage

In her memory, the Jacqueline Nonkels Prize has been created. Each year, this award provides support for an initiative that contributes to furthering the knowledge, preservation, restoration, conservation and promotion of Surrealist heritage in Belgium.

Prizewinner Jacqueline Nonkels Prize 2023

In 2023, the Prize Jacqueline Nonkels was awarded to Suzanne Vanderveken for her dissertation on the gallery owner and art dealer Lou Cosyn, who was closely associated with René Magritte. The dissertation also highlights other emerging Surrealist artists who exhibited at Cosyn’s gallery, as well as contributing to knowledge about the Belgian artistic revival after World War II and the historiography of female art dealers during the 1940s. This is the first monograph to be published about a female gallery owner. With a value of €5,000, the Jacqueline Nonkels Prize provided support for the publication of Suzanne Vanderveken’s dissertation in English, in the form of a monograph. The publication provides a reference work for researchers and art professionals as well as a wider audience of art collectors or art lovers.

Call: Jacqueline Nonkels Prize 2024

It is now possible to submit applications for the 2024 Jacqueline Nonkels Prize! The call for projects closes on 27 November. There are two separate calls: one for organisations and one for individuals. Apply now!