 Upon completion of the degree, in 1931, he did not take a teaching position but instead enrolled in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, where he took courses from 1933 to 1937.Here he specialised in portraiture and studied under Isodoor Opsomer.In this period his life evolved against the background of the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany and the associated anti-semitism, a growing concern of Van Dam and his acquaintances.