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26/2/2007

Before Art Brussels

Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Bruxelles

The first contemporary Art fairs in Belgium.

The Association of Contemporary Art Galleries of Belgium was founded forty years ago and organised the first Contemporary Art Fair in Brussels in 1968. On the occasion of the 25th edition of Art Brussels at the Heysel, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium assembled an exhibition on the origins of this important international event of contemporary art.

The activity of the Association of Contemporary Art Galleries of Belgium will be presented in a documentary and historical exhibition. In the wake of the Salon des Galeries Pilotes of Lausanne, the Kölner Kunstmarkt, Prospekt in Düsseldorf, and even before the Basel Art Fair or the FIAC in Paris, the Contemporary Art Fair of Brussels was one of the first instances when commercial galleries got together in a joint venture to promote contemporary art.

On two occasions it was organised in Bruges and Knokke. From its very beginnings, the Contemporary Art Fair found itself at the centre of the contemporary art market in a country renown for its art collectors. Soon it positioned itself as a meeting place for numerous art lovers, collectors, professionals and artists.

The exhibition will illustrate the program of the first Contemporary Art Fairs through works of art, documents and photographs from the Archives of the Association. These Archives have been donated recently to the Archives of Contemporary Art of Belgium which are part of the information and documentation services of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts.


The Museum of Modern Art
This section houses works of art from the end of the 18th century up to the modern period: paintings, sculptures and drawings. It represents the logical continuation of the artistic evolution which starts in the Museum of Ancient Art. This particularity of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium contributes to their originality.

The collections from the 19th century are exhibited in the neoclassical building overlooking the place Royale (entrance to the Museum of Modern Art). The paintings and sculptures on display are arranged on a thematic and chronological basis and are spread over six floors or levels. Those of the 20th century are grouped together in the rooms which were opened in 1984. In part underground, these are arranged around a light shaft which gives the architectural structure a special identity.

The Modern Art section also includes the Antoine Wiertz and Constantin Meunier Museums, which are specially devoted to the work of those two artists who were key figures in Belgian art in the 19th century.

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
Rue de la Régence 3, 1000 Brussels
Opening times: from 10h00 to 17h00

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