PANAMARENKO (Antwerp, Belgium, 1940-Brakel, Belgium, 2019). "Prova car," 2004. Offset color print with collage, P.A. copy. Signed and justified in lower right corner. Attached sales document from the Winwood Gallery. Measurements: 94 x 71 cm; 95 x 72 x 4,5 cm (frame). "Prova-car" is a sort of poetic version of a Formula-1 racing car, which Panamarenko made in 2004. Like a contemporary Leonardo Da Vinci, Panamarenko, a famous Belgian artist, devised fantastic flying and ground engineering devices. Panamarenko studied at the Antwerp Academy. Before 1968, his art was inspired by Pop art, and he became interested in manned flight at an early age. This interest is also reflected in his name. It is supposed to be an acronym for "Pan American Airlines and Company". From 1970, he developed his first models of imaginary vehicles, airplanes, balloons or helicopters. Many of his sculptures are modern versions of the myth of Icarus. In 1965, Panamarenko organizes the first happening in Antwerp. Two years after his debut as an artist, in 1967, Panamarenko holds his first exhibition in Antwerp at the Galerie Wide White Space and begins to build his first airplane. In 1990, already consolidated as a sculptor, he presents his first Archaeopterix (intelligent hen) made from a model of a prehistoric bird. He was present at the Documenta in Kassel in 1972. In 1973 and 1978 he mounted a large solo exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, respectively. In his first exhibition in Spain, at the Miró Foundation (1984) he shows his model airplane, a poetic reference to the art and science that had constituted Leonardo da Vinci's aesthetic horizon. In 2005, he receives an invitation from the Mayor of Antwerp to the City Hall Salon for his 65th birthday, where he is honored. 2006: The official Belgian newspaper publishes an article about the Panamarenko Collective, a non-profit association that promotes the artist's work. 2007: The artist donates to the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA) his historic family home, with the studio and all the objects and works it contained. The museum has collaborated with the Panamarenko Collective to adapt it as a museum house or visitable art space and give a boost to contemporary Flemish culture. On April 24, 2009, VLM Airlines named one of its Fokker 50 aircraft in his honor.