Philippe Vandenberg
dal 28/1/2013 al 12/4/2013
Segnalato da
28/1/2013
Philippe Vandenberg
Hauser & Wirth, London
Selected Works. A selection of oil paintings on canvas and wood produced during the late nineties. The artist drew motifs, figures and icons from an immense literature of art history, myths and sagas.
'I am an artist of emotion and reflections. I don't mean sentimentalism, the
emotional, but the shock of the emotion that triggers, as it were, the reflection.
Only the reflection creates space'. Philippe Vandenberg (1952 – 2009)
Hauser & Wirth is proud to present 'Philippe Vandenberg. Selected Works', the gallery's
first exhibition of Vandenberg's paintings and the artist's first solo show in the UK. The
exhibition will feature a selection of oil paintings on canvas and wood produced during
the late nineties.
At the beginning of the 1980s, painters in Europe began to revolt against the hegemony
of American conceptual art. From the Transavanguardia in Italy to the Neue Wilde in
Germany, a Neo-Expressionist style rose to the surface, vehement and uncompromising.
Among these young artists was the Belgian painter, Philippe Vandenberg. Vandenberg
continued to work with this Neo-Expressionist style until the mid-1990s when his work,
whether figurative or abstract, became more visceral and tormented, evincing not only
the artist's battle with his medium, but also with his own demons.
Vandenberg drew motifs, figures and icons from an immense literature of art history, myths
and sagas. He employed these loaded themes in his paintings: beheadings in which not
only the body but also the painting itself was mutilated; the vainglorious king torn apart
by dogs; the lion as symbol of power, the bear as symbol of cruelty, and the hare as a
sign of haste and angst; rings of fire and scenes of torture and rape.
Vandenberg opened
Pandora's Box in an attempt to
grasp all that was irrational and
desperate in his world.
Painting was also an 'exercise in
dying' for Vandenberg in which
he exhausted every means at
his disposal: not only painting
but also over-painting, not only
image but also the written word.
At the end of his life he painted
/ wrote: 'Il me faut tout oublier',
or 'Everything must be forgotten'.
Philippe Vandenberg was born in
1952 and lived and worked in Belgium until his death in 2009. His works are held in
numerous international collections, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York NY.
Major recent exhibitions include the travelling exhibition, 'Philippe Vandenberg & Berlinde
De Bruyckere. Innocence is precisely: never to avoid the worst', De Pont Museum of
Contemporary Art, Tilburg, Netherlands (2012), which opens at La maison rouge, Paris,
France in Spring 2014; 'Homage to Philippe Vandenberg', Museum of Modern Art,
Ostend, Belgium (2009), which travelled to Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium (2009);
'Artist in Residence – Philippe Vandenberg. Visite', Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium
(2008); and 'L'important c'est le Kamikaze. Oeuvre 2000 – 2006', Musée Rimbaud,
Charleville-Mézières, France (2006).
Press Contact:
Ana Vukadin, ana@suttonpr.com
+44 207 183 3577
Maria de Lamerens, marial@hauserwirth.com
+44 207 255 8990
Opening: Tuesday 29 January, 6 – 8 pm
Hauser & Wirth
196A Piccadilly, London
Hours: tue-sat 10am-6pm
Free Admission