Sanguine / Bloedrood

During the cultural city festival Antwerp Baroque 2018. Rubens Inspires, the M HKA, the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, juxtaposes the spirit of the baroque masters with the vision of contemporary top artists. With the exhibition Sanguine/Bloedrood (Blood Red), curator Luc Tuymans aims to overwhelm the visitor by placing key works from the baroque of, among others, Francisco de Zurbarán and Caravaggio, in dialogue with works by classical contemporary masters, such as On Kawara and Edward Kienholz, as well as new works by contemporary stars such as Zhang Enli, Takashi Murakami, Michaël Borremans, Sigmar Polke and Tobias Rheberger.

antwerpenbarok2018.be

Jan Vercruysse

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°1948 †2018

Born in Ostend, BE

Lives in Ghent, BE

From the mid-1970s, Jan Vercruysse (1948-2018) takes to the museum space with abstract collages, installations and assemblages that primarily question the essence of art. Vercruysse is not primarily interested in the artistic production of content or communication, but in the formal quietude of the object itself. A practice that at one given moment brings the artist to present only empty frames. Vercruysse always focuses on the structural precision of his compositions, which are entirely directed inward. All forms of thinking fall away, the oeuvre is self-sufficient in the literal sense of the word. A series of chairs are hung with their backrests against the wall, straight and uniform. A white chair stands on a white sheet on a table, like an accurately composed composition trouvée. Order and regularity, geometric shapes and recurring structures. Objects that can only refer to themselves because they have become meaningless in the context in which they are presented. Or by the way in which the artist has composed them.

Text: Hans Willemse
Translations: Michael Meert