History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 241

Born in Antwerp on April 12, 1922, Jan Yoors, son of artist Eugeen Yoors, left home at
the age of twelve to join a kumpania, or tribe of gypsies roaming through Western
Europe and the Balkans. In 1940, because of the Nazi persecution of gypsies , he
became a liaison operative between Allied intelligence units and gypsies behind the
German lines. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and condemned to death after six
months of solitary confinement and torture, he escaped and resumed his activities .
A year later he went to London, where he studied at London University and the
School of Oriental Studies. Inspired by an exhibition of medieval tapestries, he took
up the art. In 1950 he came to New York City and continued his hand-woven art.
The first museum showing of his tapestries was in 1956 at the "Twentieth Century
Tapestries" exhibition of the Montclair, N.J. Art Museum. Dominating the gallery were
14 of Jan Yoors' dramatic works ranging from 8 to 90 feet square. They portrayed
simple objects in stark and sharp outlines, using brilliant solid-color contrasts of men
and animals. Art in America magazine called him "a new talent in the U.S.A." In 1962
and 1965 he represented the U.S. at the International Bienanle of Contemporary
Tapestries in Lausanne, Switzerland. Fifty of his tapestries were exhibited in 1974 in
St. Peter's Abbey at Ghent in a celebration marking the 1,000th anniversary of the
founding of this Flemish city. In 1976, 50 of his tapestries were exhibi ted in Chicago.
In 1963 Jan Yoors made a feature-length documentary film, "Only One New York",
and in 1965 Simon & Schuster published a photo album on the same subject. In 1966
and 1967 he travelled in the Amazon territory, much of the Far East and Russia, tak
ing photographs. He wrote "The Gypsies", a nonfiction account of six of the years he
lived among nomads in Europe before WWII, in 1967, followed by a sequel
"Crossing", an autobiographical journal, in 1971.
Jan Yoors died at the age of 55, after suffering a heart attack, on November 27, 1977
at New York City.

Born in Brussels,