Visual Arts from Flanders

From van Eyck to Tuymans, a centuries’ long tradition of visual artists

In our region there is a centuries’ long predominant tradition of visual artists that have a great impact on the art production of their time and who continue to inspire the artists and worldwide public for generations to come. For example, one needs only to think of Jan Van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, Sir Anthony van Dyck and more recently James Ensor, Constant Permeke or René Magritte.

This tradition continues to the present day. The contemporary visual arts scene in Flanders is at its highest level with one of the pioneers, Marcel Broodthaers, followed by Panamarenko, Raoul De Keyser, Jef Geys, Luc Tuymans, Jan Fabre, Wim Delvoye, Berlinde De Bruyckere or Michaël Borremans. Francis Alÿs, who was born in Antwerp, but lives and works in Mexico City, is viewed worldwide as one of the most important contemporary artists.

Masters from Flanders in major art collections and art biennials all over the world

Just as the works of the Old Masters belong to the great international collections, so too are the works of our contemporary artists purchased by the great museums for contemporary art around the globe. They are invited to famous art biennials such as Venice, São Paulo, Sydney, Shanghai, Sharjah, Taipei or Documenta and their works are exhibited in the best art halls and museums such as the MoMA, Contemporary Art Chicago, the Kunsthalle of Budapest, the Gwangju Museum of Art, the MOCA of Chengdu or the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa. Or, closer to home, they are found in the Centre Pompidou, the Tate Modern, the Musée du Louvre, the K21 of Düsseldorf, the Vienna Secession, the Hamburg Bahnhof Berlin, the Vienna Mumok, the Barcelona Macba, to name a few.

Curators from Flanders take the lead in major art institutions abroad

Our curators also play an important role in the international art scene and in leading institutions and museums abroad. Jan Hoet, for example, was the curator for Documenta IX in 1992 and Director of Marta Herford in Germany. Jan Debbaut was Artistic Director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and Head of Collections in the Tate Museum in England. Chris Dercon was the Director of the Tate Modern after being in charge at the Witte de With and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam and the Haus der Kunst in Munich. Catherine de Zegher was the Executive Director and Chief Curator at the Drawing Center in New York and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. She recently curated two biennials, Sydney in 2012 and Moscow in 2013. Ann Demeester was Director of De Appel in Amsterdam and currently manages the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem. Hilde Teerlinck heads the FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais in Dunkerque after her work at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona and Philippe Pirotte, formerly Director of the Kunsthalle Bern and the Berkeley Art Museum, is the current Director of the prestigious Städelschule in Frankfurt. Niels Van Tomme has curated Bucharest Biennial 2016 and is now Director at De Appel in Amsterdam. They are important ambassadors for the art scene of Flanders and play a significant role in the development of an international network for our artists.

A tradition of private collections and private galleries

Flanders has an exceptionally large number of collectors who play an important role in supporting emerging and established artists and enriching the collections and exhibition programmes of public museums. There are a number of collectors whose private collections have acquired a museum status and who have opened up their own space to the public, such as the Herbert Foundation, the Vanhaerents Art Collection, the Vanmoerkerke Collection or the Verbeke Foundation. Collector Herman Daled sold his historical collection of works by Marcel Broodthaers to the MoMa in New York. Baron and Baroness Guy and Myriam Ullens de Schooten founded the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing to exhibit their collection of Chinese contemporary art. Recently, the French collectors Myriam and Amaury de Solages opened Maison Particulière in Brussels, a private house used for thematic displays of works owned by different private collections.

The gallery scene also has a strong tradition with pioneers such as MTL in Brussels and Wide White Space in Antwerp from the end of the 1960s and in the1970s. The region has a number of outstanding galleries representing emerging as well as established artists, situated in Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent and Knokke such as Zeno X Gallery, Xavier Hufkens, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Albert Baronian, Galerie Greta Meert, Deweer Gallery, De Zwarte Panter, Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Guy Pieters Gallery, Ronny Van de Velde, and Jan Mot.

They all gather during Art Brussels, which is considered as one of the important art fairs in Europe. Less than two hours from Paris, London, Amsterdam and Cologne and combining young galleries, presenting emerging artists with the more established galleries from all over the world.

In 2016, art fair Independent New York organised its first Brussels edition. Next to Art Brussels and Independent, off-fairs were organised as well during that period, such as Poppositions and YIA Art Fair.

What makes these art dealers and collectors so specific and famous worldwide is their high level of quality and highly influential personal taste and their exceptional passion for the artists they represent.

Traditionally a crossroads of the Roman and Germanic cultures and a key meeting point amongst The Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany and France, Flanders is ideally located to contribute to a flourishing contemporary art scene. Unlike other major  European cities or regions, Flanders has no large-sized or monumental museums like Centre Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London, Museum Ludwig in Cologne or the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, but it has other important and valuable qualities. What Flanders has to offer by being located near these major cities, moreover, is a mix of historical cities, museums for fine arts, museums for contemporary art, art foundations, exhibition spaces and private galleries. Institutions are of medium size, but each is very specific and innovative in its collections and programmes. Examples of such institutions are BOZAR, WIELS and Argos in Brussels, M HKA, Middelheimmuseum, FotoMuseum and Extra City in Antwerp, S.M.A.K. and Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in the region of Ghent, Mu.ZEE in Ostend, Museum M in Leuven and Z33 in Hasselt.

Cities like Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, Leuven and Hasselt are between a thirty-minute and two-hour drive away from each other. This density of significant art institutions, collectors and galleries in combination with internationally acclaimed artists and curators makes Flanders one of the most vibrant regions for contemporary art in Europe.

Contemporary art cities

Brussels

In the past few years, Brussels has clearly become a very important city for visual arts in Belgium and a real hotspot in Europe thanks to its fertile soil for artists and curators from all over the world and for galleries from neighbouring countries (UK, France, The Netherlands and Germany). The reason for this popularity is a mix of a flourishing artist community with international influx, dynamic institutions like BOZAR, Wiels (the contemporary art centre with residency program which opened in 2007 in the former Wielemans-Ceuppens beer brewery), CENTRALE for contemporary art, Argos and different project rooms and artist-run initiatives like Etablissement d’en Face, Komplot, the dynamic art fair Art Brussels, a scene of passionate collectors, low rents and a location that is easily accessible from Amsterdam, Paris, London and Cologne.

Leading international contemporary art galleries have opened venues in Brussels: Gladstone Gallery from New York; Almine Rech Gallery, Daniel Templon, Galerie Michel Rein and Nathalie Obadia from Paris, MOT International and CLEARING from London, Thomas Rehbein Gallery from Cologne and Motive Gallery from Amsterdam. In addition to these international galleries, Brussels has about thirty-five high-quality promotion galleries with leading players such as Albert Baronian, Xavier Hufkens, Galerie Greta Meert, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Galerie Catherine Bastide, dépendance, Galerie Jan Mot, Meessen De Clercq and new dynamic galleries like D+T Project, Elaine Lévy Project, and Hopstreet. Some extraordinary smaller initiatives were set up during the past few years by artists or curators such as La Loge, Le Salon, A.VE.NU.DE.JET.TE Institut de Carton, 105 Besme, Rectangle, De La Charge, Middlemarch etc. Furthermore, private initiators opened spaces with extraordinary collections and temporary exhibitions including Vanhaerents Art Collection, Fondation A Stichting, Maison Particulière and CAB Art Center.

Antwerp has long been a creative centre. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the city was home to masters such as Peter Paul Rubens and Sir Anthony Van Dyck. Due to the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts, which was founded in 1663, and one of the oldest of its kind in Europe, many important artists like Luc Tuymans or Jan Fabre live in Antwerp.

Antwerp has a robust museum infrastructure, with, in addition to a large number of museums for older and applied art, the Museum for Contemporary Art, the M HKA, the open-air sculpture museum of Middelheim and the Photography Museum. In addition, Kunsthal Extra City and LLS 387 are also situated in Antwerp. Via artist residencies AIR and Lokaal 01, foreign artists are also brought into the fold. Antwerp traditionally has a dynamic gallery scene with an international reputation such as Zeno X, Tim Van Laere Gallery, re(D)., Geukens & De Vil, Stieglitz 19, Gallery Sofie Van De Velde, Galerie mariondecanniere, Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Zwarte Panter, Annie Gentils Gallery, Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Base-Alpha Gallery, Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Galerie Annette De Keyser.

Ghent

The contemporary art scene is well represented in and by S.M.A.K., the museum for contemporary art of the city of Ghent. HISK, the higher institute for fine arts, offers a post-academic course in audiovisual and visual art for twenty-four young artists from Belgium and abroad, providing them with a studio of their own for two years. Project space KIOSK has built up a strong international reputation.

The Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens in Deurle each year proposes an exhibition based on a private collection and hosts the Biennale of Painting.

Ghent also has a number of smaller, but dedicated private galleries with more adventurous programmes like Galerie S&H De Buck, Galerie Tatjana Pieters and Kristof Declercq Gallery.

Mechelen and Leuven

The historical cities of Mechelen and Leuven, each a twenty-minute drive from Brussels, offer extraordinary opportunities for visual art lovers. M – Museum Leuven, an impressive, streamlined new museum building designed by renowned Belgian architect Stéphane Beel and situated in the heart of the city, integrates existing historical collections with contemporary exhibitions.

Mechelen hosts an active exhibition space De Garage and organises every two years the biennial of the moving image Contour. In addition, Mechelen regularly organises a city festival around a specific theme.

Hasselt and Genk

These two cities are situated in a former mining area, and they lead the way of innovation and the relationship with design. Genk magically transformed a mining site into a hotspot of culture, education and creation: C-Mine and FLACC serve as a working place for visual artists. The House for contemporary art, Z33, has a strong international reputation in thematic exhibitions of art, design and community. Hasselt also hosts a smaller art space called CIAP.

Bruges, Ostend and Knokke

The museum of modern and contemporary art, Mu.ZEE, places its emphasis on the contemporary artists in its unique collection of Belgian art from 1830 to the present. Moreover, Knokke has a bustling gallery scene with places such as Guy Pieters, Mulier Mulier Gallery, Galerie Patrick De Brock, Geukens & De Vil Knokke, and Stephanie Simoens.