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 (9)
Berlinde De Bruyckere, Zonder titel (9), 1994. Drawing, cardboard, gouache, aquarel, 390 x 270 mm.
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Zonder titel (2)
Berlinde De Bruyckere, Zonder titel (2), 1994. Drawing, cardboard, gouache, aquarel, 440 x 280 mm.
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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.
Events
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The Collection XXI
01 December 2007 - 10 March 2008.
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EXTRA MUROS: A Story of t...
13 August 2009 - 06 September 2009.
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Berlinde de Bruyckere — a...
21 January 2001 - 29 April 2001.
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When Faith Moves Mountains
17 July 2022 - 09 October 2022.
This project was set up differently from a classic exhibition; the working method was rather activist, whereby a 'coalition of the willing' s
Ensembles
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Collectie Vlaamse Gemeens...
The M HKA holds works on permanent loan that were acquired with the budget of the Vlaamse Commissie voor Beeldende Kunst (Flemish Visual Art
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Middle Gate
No description.
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Benedenverdieping | Groun...
The works for the theme Migration that can be found on the ground floor.
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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