Tag: brussels

MiMa Brussels

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The Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art. Opened just after we’d left for New York in 2016, Brussels’ newest contemporary museum showcasing works by younger artists mainly, it goes without saying that we couldn’t wait to pay a visit. The renovated red-brick building – a former brewery – is amazing; the art on show not so much, but fun nonetheless.

Brussels

October 20th, 2019

”The Fall of the Rebel Angels”, by Pieter Bruegel I

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Elaborately worked details define most of the Elder’s paintings but, in The Fall of the Rebel Angels, he manages to surpass even himself! If anyone could encompass an entire cabinet of curiosities in one painting – and have tons of fun in the process, that must be Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

So absorbed was I by all these wonderful details – every little one a work of art in itself, I almost missed the violence the work is supposed to depict, with the fall of Lucifer and his fellow rebel angels, chased away from heaven by Archangel Michael.

Another ”fun” detail: The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Pieter Bruegel the Elder is one of the masterpieces at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The Royal Museums acquired the painting in 1846 thinking it was the work of his son, Pieter Brueghel the Younger. The work was then attributed to Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) until 1898 when the date and signature “MDLXII / Brvegel” were found in the bottom left-hand corner, hidden by the frame.

Thus the painting was finally attributed to its legitimate creator, Bruegel the Elder. [source]

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium [Musée Oldmasters Museum], Brussels

October 19th, 2019

The fun is in the details

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The Old Masters may be all divine symbolism and biblical images, but who said they couldn’t have fun?

Detail #1: apparently, keeping squirrels as pets is not a new idea.

  • Master of 1518 (Jan van Dornicke?) Triptych of The Abbey of Dielegem
  • Master of 1518 (Jan van Dornicke?) Triptych of The Abbey of Dielegem [detail]
  • Master of 1518 (Jan van Dornicke?) Triptych of The Abbey of Dielegem [detail]

Detail #2: the ”Oh, man…” look on the Demon’s face.

(Suzanne, a married woman, sends her maids away while is she is taking a bath. Once alone, two elders who secretly desire her, make advances. Suzanne refuses, but is later accused of adultery by the very men she refused. She is found guilty and condemned to death).

  • Jan Massys, Suzanne and the Elders, signed 1567
  • Jan Massys, Suzanne and the Elders, signed 1567 [detail]
  • Jan Massys, Suzanne and the Elders, signed 1567 [detail]

Detail #3: Carnival costume inspiration.

  • Pieter Brueghel II, The Battle of Carnival and Lent
  • Pieter Brueghel II, The Battle of Carnival and Lent

Detail #4: the Younger having fun copying the Elder but, in a bout of originality, appropriates a barrel to sign his work.

  • Pieter Brueghel II, The Numbering at Bethlehem
  • Pieter Brueghel II, The Numbering at Bethlehem [detail]

Detail #5: the original. As in most of the Elder’s paintings, there’s so much going on here, you’re bound to discover something new every time you look. This time, the eye lingers over the warm red sun setting far at the background, beyond the dark bare branches of the tree.

  • Pieter Brueghel I, The Numbering at Bethlehem
  • Pieter Brueghel I, The Numbering at Bethlehem

Detail #6: Going commando in the 17th century was the norm, apparently.

  • Pieter II Brueghel (or workshop of), Fair with theater and procession
  • Pieter II Brueghel (or workshop of), Fair with theater and procession [detail]

Detail #7: so much to see, so little time… *yawn*

  • Pieter I Brueghel? (according to), The yawner

Detail #8: what did you see first?

  • Anonymous master from the Southern Netherlands, Anthropomorphic landscape. 
    Portrait of a woman

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium [Musée Oldmasters Museum], Brussels

October 19th, 2019

La Barque de l’Ideal, 1907 || Constant Montald

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Adorning the Great Hall at the entrance of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, together with its companion ”La Fontaine de l’Inspiration”, it is so striking one simply must stop and stare. These monumental paintings (they measure around 400x500cm) were created by Montald specifically for the Museum, but were both rejected by its acquisitions committee and returned to him – yet, in a symbolic twist of fate, they ended up back were they belonged!

  • La Barque de l’Ideal, 1907 || Constant Montald
  • La Barque de l’Ideal, 1907 || Constant Montald [detail]
  • La Barque de l’Ideal, 1907 || Constant Montald [detail]R

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels

October 19th, 2019

Me Somewhere Else

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by Chiharu Shiota

‘‘Chiharu Shiota’s (Osaka, 1972) spectacular installations transform the spaces in which they unfold, and immerse the visitor in the artist’s universe. They combine textile materials such as wool and cotton with various elements, sculpted shapes or used objects.

The artist combines performance, body art and installation in a process that places the body at its center. Her protean artistic practice explores the notions of temporality, movement, memory and dream; and requires both the mental and physical involvement of the spectator. Chiharu Shiota’s highly acclaimed participation in the Venice Biennale, where she represented Japan in 2015, confirmed the international scope of her work.

Me Somewhere Else (2018), a work of great visual strength, occupies a very special place in the artist’s production. Shiota talks about her fight against her illness, and the certainty that her mind will survive her body. “Before I was diagnosed with cancer I thought that if I die, everything about me is going to die; I am going to die, but now I know only my body dies – not my mind. My mind remains somewhere else.”

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium

October 19th, 2019