THE FRIENDS' BOOKLET SPRING > SUMMER 2019
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE FRIENDS’ BOOKLET SPRING > SUMMER 2019 Visit our website www.becomeafriend.be to be kept informed of the latest activities and events of the Friends and take full benefit of the advantages offered to you! Editor Christiane Waucquez Rue du Musée 9, 1000 Brussels Contact Friends of the RMFAB Rue du Musée 9, 1000 Brussels T +32 (0)2 511 41 16 [email protected] / www.becomeafriend.be Becomeafriend Design www.indekeuken.org This booklet has been created and printed with the help of Treetop. DEAR FRIENDS, In 2019, spring at the Museum will be Dutch! After many years of renovation, you will once again be able to admire the masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age (see pp 6-7). For the first time in over 200 years, three fragments of the ‘Van Campen Family Portrait’ by Frans Hals (1582-1666) will be reunited and will interact with 3 other portraits by the artist (see pp 8-9). We hope that many of you will come to celebrate together this ‘Dutch Spring’ at the Friends’ Private Evening on Tuesday 12 March, 2019 (see pp 4-5). During this event you will also discover the new reception rooms of the ‘Grand Auditorium Philippe Roberts-Jones’. In the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium there is a sublime collection of ancient drawings and a selection of these, dating from the 18th century, will be exhibited in the ‘Cabinet of the Most Wonderful Drawings’ until 19 May 2019 (see pp 10-11). Contemporary art is not forgotten! The exhibition Wim Delvoye, a major figure of the Belgian art scene, will open on 22 March. This exhibition (see pp 12-13) offers a broad panorama of his work and emphasizes its multidisciplinary aspect. In April, Thomas Lerooy (Behind the Curtain) and Agnès Guillaume (4MY’s) will exhibit their works (see pp 14-17). In June, the Magritte Museum will celebrate its 10th anniversary and a number of events will be planned for this occasion (see pp 18-19). One of the events will be an exhibition in October 2019 on Salvador Dalí’s work in dialogue with René Magritte’s paintings. Outside the Museums, we invite you to explore several cultural destinations (Abu Dhabi, Athens, Bordeaux, Marche, Liverpool & York, London...) with excellent guides and company in a unique atmosphere. Several day trips are also on the programme (see pp 21-24). Remember to register early to our very successful More For Friends activities (see p 25), and the registration is now also open for our Autumn 2019 Contemporary Art Tour (see p 29). The challenges faced by our museums do not prevent them to deliver on their missions and radiate out; do not miss the Khnoppf exhibition at the Petit Palais in Paris (curated by Michel Draguet, Managing Director of the museums) and the Van Orley exhibition in Bozar resulting from a fruitful collaboration. Dear Friends, come often to our wonderful museums, there is something going on every day (see pp 26-27), and more than ever we need your precious support (see pp 30-31)! A huge thank you and see you soon. 3 Friends’ Private Evening ( Extract of a still life painting) Nature morte à la cruche à tête barbue et coupe nautile Maerten Boelema de Stomme, Tuesday 12.03 2019 at 17:30 & 19:00 A private evening for the Friends to admire ‘A Family Reunion’, focus exhibition on Frans Hals and his portraits. Let’s celebrate together the ‘Dutch Spring’ with a visit of one of the best collections of Dutch paintings outside GUIDED TOURS the Netherlands. FOLLOWED BY DRINKS ( Extract of a still life painting) To register for this event, send your payment of €10 per person (€17 for non-members) into the account BE46 3100 4042 4636 – BBRUBEBB, mentioning the date, hour and language of your choice (French or Dutch). Nature morte à la cruche à tête barbue et coupe nautile Registration and payment before 8 March 2019 (no confirmation will be provided and no refund in case of absence). Maerten Boelema de Stomme, Maerten Entrance via Place des Musées 5 From 01.02 2019 Dutch Spring Reopening of the ‘Dutch School’ Collection With the reopening of the ‘Dutch School’ collection and in the context of the 2019 Rembrandt year, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium put forward the Dutch School this spring. Discover the family portraits painted by Frans Hals, the great masters of the Dutch Golden Age, and a cabinet with the most exquisite 18th century drawings! Journey through the Dutch Golden Age and (re) discover artists such as Frans Hals, Rembrandt van Rijn, Nicolaes Maes, Abraham Bloemaert, Jan van Goyen, Jacob van Ruisdael or Pieter de Hooch. The recently renovated ‘Dutch School’ galleries house portraits, landscapes, genre scenes and still lifes, and offer a vast panorama of this fascinating artistic period. The 17th century brought to the Northern Netherlands an era of unprecedented economic prosperity. During this Golden Age, cities such as Amsterdam, Utrecht, Haarlem and Leiden became true hubs of artistic innovation. The RMFAB’s collection of Dutch art from this period is one of the largest and most beautiful, preserved outside the Netherlands. After a long-awaited renovation of the Dutch School galleries, about a hundred masterpieces finally get a well-deserved permanent spot in the Old Masters Museum. On this occasion there will be a family day on 3 February 2019. Tales, creative workshops for young and old, and guided tours will punctuate this festive afternoon. 6 Come and discover ‘in full awareness’ our masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age: Marjan Abadie founder of the Mindfulness Institute offers a meditative approach to appropriating a work in an intimate way and to live it as a sensory experience in a ‘Slow Art’ perspective. Slow Art: ticketting online, Thursday 07.02, 21.03, 25.04 12:30-13:30 and Sunday 17.02, 17.03, 28.04 de 15:00-16:00 (only in FR, discount for the Friends) More for Friends > Tuesday 12.03 2019 17:30 & 19:00 THE FRIENDS’ PRIVATE EVENING (see pp 4-5) Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael; Images by Adriaen van de Velde, Landscape with river 7 01.02 > 19.05 2019 Frans Hals’s portraits A Family Reunion Born in 1582, probably in Antwerp, Frans Hals spent his youth in Haarlem. married twice and had fourteen children! Four became painters like their father. This early 17th century painter, contemporary with Rubens, is known for the strength, vitality and emotion of his impressive Family Gatherings. The exhibition presented in the heart of the newly reopened Dutch rooms on this occasion highlights the tremendous work of regrouping a very large painting representing a family originally counting 16 characters and having subsequently undergone mysterious cuttings. The painting was divided into various independent paintings, only three of which being kept in known places. The central section, showing the three children and the cart pulled by a goat has been part of the collection of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium since 1928, while the larger section from the left (with 9 characters) belonged to a private collection until 2011 when it was purchased by the Toledo Museum (Ohio – United States). The right fragment showing the portrait of a boy is part of a Belgian private collection. This is the first time that the three parts of the oldest portrait by Frans Hals will be reunited and the RMFAB have taken this opportunity to exhibit other portraits by the artist. The catalogue proposed in conjunction with the exhibition position Frans Hals’ family gathering within his work and in the tradition of family portrait in the northern and southern Netherlands. The richly illustrated publication is available in French, Dutch and English. 8 ca. 1620. , Three children of the cloth merchant Gijsbert Claesz. van Campen and his wife Maria Jorisdr. together with a car pulled by a goat Frans Hals, More for Friends > Tuesday 12.03 2019 17:30 & 19:00 THE FRIENDS’ PRIVATE EVENING (see pp 4-5) 9 Focus Exposition Hendrik Meijer, Fisherman’s boat 10 in an Italian port in the Moonlight, 1769 01.02 > 19.05 2019 Cabinet of the Most Wonderful Drawings: a selection of 18th-century Dutch drawings from the collection of the RMFAB During the 18th century, collecting drawings and prints became widely popular in the Northern Netherlands. With the then predominant fashion for wallpaper, it became essential to acquire paintings and decorations. Jean Degrez’s ‘Wonderful’ cabinet, which includes more than 1,200 18th-century drawings, is no exception to this practice. Jean Degrez died on 18 September 1910 in Brussels where he had come to live. According to his will, his wife Marie Mahie bequeathed the collection to Belgium in 1911. Among the 4,250 pieces in the collection, 3,600 are drawings from the 16th to the 19th century, from the Dutch school. In 2007 a Golden Century exhibition dedicated to the 17th century was being held; the 18th century is now added to this exhibition under the enthusiastic and expert impulse of Charles Dumas, expert curator of the Rijksbureau voor kunsthistorische documentatie, Robert-Jan te Rijdt, curator of drawings at the Rijksmuseum, and Stefaan Hautekeete, curator of the old drawings collection at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. They have selected eighty exceptional drawings that trace the entire 18th century and whose variety of subjects and techniques gives an overview of the characteristics of this era. A catalogue in English will be published and will include relevant information regarding the technique, watermark, origin and bibliographical references of each drawing, about 250 pages including 120 colour illustrations.