Antwerp museum mixes it up with artworks owned by province
While the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp is closed for renovation until 2017, its collection isn’t gathering dust in the depot.
KMSKA staging temporary exhibitions across Flanders
While the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) is closed for renovation until 2017, its collection isn’t gathering dust in the depot. Their works by Rik Wouters, for instance, are on show in Mechelen, whereas Bruegel and his followers can be seen in Lier. Moreover, in Antwerp’s Fabiolazaal, the museum is staging temporary exhibitions using its collections from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The fifth instalment, The Moderns. Duos, is a somewhat special case. This time, KMSKA shows its works by local and international artists together with paintings and sculptures from the art collection of Antwerp province. The province holds more than 2,000 pieces, trying as much as possible to incorporate works by artists with links to the province.
Those art works are displayed in reception rooms and offices. But even for a highly motivated art lover, it would be very difficult to see a majority of the collection. The Moderns. Duos has selected 30 of these works and, as the title suggests, paired them in dialogue with works from their own collection.
The two works that form a pair are visually linked in one way or another. Sometimes they share the same subject: the city views of Cedric Morris and René Guiette, or the still lifes by Wouters and Floris Jespers. At other times, the echoes are more formal: two gestural abstract paintings by Hans Hartung are shown next to Koen van den Broek’s “Blue Border #3”.
Better together
Apart from some rather well-known names, like Fred Bervoets, Emile Claus and Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven there are some nice, (re)discoveries to be made. Pieter Rottie, for instance, has completely dissolved in the mists of time. He’s present with two uncanny portraits: “Lucienne”, a girl’s face from 1938, and the undated “Mevrouw Craeybeckx”.
Or take the two small paintings by Bert De Beul: These untitled works show upper parts of buildings with no signs of human presence. Especially the left one is, in colour and composition, reminiscent of a Giorgio Morandi still life.
Lucio Fontana, on the other hand, is one of the most famous artists in the exhibition. The 1965 painting is one of a large series called Concetto spaziale, consisting of a monochrome canvas and vertical cuts. The one in Antwerp has four of them, slightly bending from right to left. Even after seeing other works from this series before, I’m continually moved by pieces from Concetto spaziale. It’s art stripped of all its frills and is nevertheless – or should I say therefore – extremely powerful.
And still it’s not the high point in this exhibition. That comes at the end, when Jef Verheyen’s “Zwarte ruimte” (Black Space) – a brooding black painting – is confronted with “Zonder titel (Santa Maria del Salute)” (Untitled (Santa Maria del Salute)) by David Claerbout, which hangs inside a black box.
Claerbout is mostly known for his videos, so it’s a bit confusing entering the box and seeing nothing. Is the video not working? But no, the work is a very dark photo. You have to linger a bit until your eyes adjust. But it’s only when you walk towards it that this photo starts, by lack of a better word, to come to life.
Entering a port
It’s as if you’re standing on the stem of a boat that’s entering a port. Out of grey mists the blurred contours of a building appear, the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute in Venice. It draws you in, further and further, the image getting sharper and clearer, until at one point you’re just a few centimetres away from the picture. You’d love to step into the frame and disappear.
At least, that was my experience. It’s one of the most mesmerising art works I’ve seen in a long time. It left me feeling both topsy-turvy and captivated by its mysterious beauty. This work by Claerbout alone justifies a visit to this exhibition.
Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp
inauguration museum building
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- Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp
- Openbaar Kunstbezit Vlaanderen
- Flemish Art Collection
