Berlinde De Bruyckere
° 1964
Lives in Ghent (BE), born in Ghent (BE).
Berlinde De Bruyckere (°1964) makes three-dimensional sculptures, installations and aquarelles. Her older work has a minimalist character. Steel, stone and glass were her materials of choice. Gradually she leaves abstract motifs to seek recourse in recognisable forms and things, introducing the blanket, malleable lead and straw as materials.
More recently, she has extended her personal iconography with striking sculptures of (stuffed) horses and giant (once-) cuddly animals. The beauty of the materials she uses always has something of the fatal in it. The blankets in her sculptures protect and suffocate, the lead roses seduce and poison, the carpet of begonias bear witness to bloom and decay. She intentionally uses familiar forms to inspire thinking in viewers, to provide them with memories. Her preference lies with materials and forms that mirror ambiguity, something characteristic of the human experience. Beneath the delicate and sometimes deceptively endearing skin of her work is a yawning abyss. Death, fear and loneliness are recurrent themes, though never disconnected from life, love and beauty. Despite the great formal diversity of her works, there is a common thread running throughout her oeuvre in terms of choice of materials, techniques and the repeating of symbols and motifs.
Aside from her three-dimensional works, the artist has also always put her ideas on paper. These works (drawings and aquarelles, or aquarelle and gouache combined on old paper or cardboard) are often preparatory material for the sculptures but are autonomous works in themselves. Berlinde De Bruyckere does not impose ‘the’ interpretation of her works. She consciously leaves the door open for diverse understandings.
Items
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Berlinde De Bruyckere - e...
Berlinde De Bruyckere, Berlinde De Bruyckere - en alles is aanééngenaaid, 2000. Book, ink, paper, 50 x 34,5 cm, loose-leaf publication, language : Dutch, English, publisher : Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, ISBN : 90-72828-3024.
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Zonder titel (5)
Berlinde De Bruyckere, Zonder titel (5), 1994. Drawing, gouache, watercolour, cardboard, 44 x 28 cm.
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Spreken [To Speak]
Berlinde De Bruyckere, Spreken [To Speak], 1999. Installation, metal, wood, blankets, polyester, polyurethane, 200 x 140 x 80 cm.
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Zonder titel (3)
Berlinde De Bruyckere, Zonder titel (3), 1994. Drawing, cardboard, gouache, aquarel, 445 x 285 mm.
Events
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EXTRA MUROS: A Story of t...
13 August 2009 - 06 September 2009.
No description. -

The Collection XXXIII – T...
07 June 2013 - 22 September 2013.
The character of a collection reflected the current priorities of the M HKA collection: the evaluation of Antwerp’s avant-garde tradition; th -

EXTRA MUROS: Visite Diest
27 November 2014 - 21 December 2014.
Under the umbrella termVisite, the M HKA – in collaboration with LOCUS, the hub for libraries, cultural and community centres and local cultu -

Sanguine/Bloedrood. Luc T...
01 June 2018 - 16 September 2018.
During the cultural city festival Antwerp Baroque 2018. Rubens inspires, Luc Tuymans confronts the genius of Baroque masters with the vision
Ensembles
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M HKA_DEFAULT_WORKS
No description.
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MIGRATIE | MIGRATION
Dymphna escaping over sea with her confidant Gerebernus to mainland Europe is a key example of migration, a story in which many refugees will
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Worth Fighting For
14.11 - 14.12.2022 Oskar-Jäger-Strasse 97-99, 50933 Cologne Open every day, 10:00 – 18:00 The Ukrainian fight is about the sur
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A Historical Landscape of...
A Historical Landscape of War (with a reflection by Yevhenii Monastyrskyi) The point of departure for the opening space is a historical land
