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For more than five decades, Antwerp art collector and art dealer Ronny Van de Velde has been organising pioneering and remarkable exhibition projects, which have made him one of Belgium's most important connoisseurs and defenders of a variety of artistic vanguards. His exhibitions included some of the greatest names of twentieth-century art: Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, René Magritte, Joseph Beuys, Picabia, Alechinsky, Panamarenko... In a 5-part series of small-scale presentations, the M HKA seeks to evoke the history of the gallery he runs with his wife Jessy. 

 

Part 3: Museum / Museum in question

In 1941, Marcel Duchamp was the first artist who started to question the function of the museum with his Portable Museums. Thirty years later, Ben would follow his example with his Musée de Ben.

In the turbulent sixties, it had become quite a trend to call into question – along with many other institutions – the museum as such. This manifested itself in Antwerp in the 1960s and in 1971 through the actions of Jef Geys and Hugo Heyrman, held against the KMSKA (Royal Museum of Fine Arts).

The question concerning the meaning and function of the museum pervades Marcel Broodthaers' work in a more fundamental sense. This is reflected both in his own museum which he established in the Rue de la Pepinière in Brussels, as well as in his "Industrial Poems" and his graphic work.

In 1986, Panamarenko criticised Jan Hoet's exhibition project ‘Chambres d'amis’ with his installation Chambres d'amis, more specifically a birdcage filled with money.

Through three or so different projects, Ronny Van de Velde tried to express his affinity with this subject.

He was, in 1988, one of the initiators of the project that undertook to convert the house of René Magritte in Jette into a museum: a flat on the ground floor of a modest house, where the whole world of Magritte and his wife had been reconstructed. This was the very room where Magritte, painting in his living room, created a large part of his oeuvre. It is also a lesson in humility for artists who, as a rule, seem to require ever larger studios and spaces.

In 2006, the highly playful project ‘Hands of Art’ saw a number of artists making drawings of their hands. An apparently simple idea, which nonetheless led to an admittedly small but remarkable museum collection and a travelling exhibition.

Finally, in 2012, the project Museum to scale 1/7 was realised which, after a number of exhibitions at home and abroad, has found its final home at the Antwerp University. The more than 100 artists involved were each presented with a box measuring 100 x 65 x 60 cm, in which they could indulge their creativity, which resulted in an amazing and unique ensemble. This proved once again that a fantastic museum can be created in a modest space...

 

PUBLICATION

The book 'Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, fragmenten uit leven en werken' (Galerie Ronny Van de Velde Gallery, fragments from life and work) is published on the occasion of the five-part series in INBOX.

Text by Jan Ceuleers.

1008 pp.; Hardcover, Dutch/English; 32.5 x 24.5 cm; ISBN 978-94-9303-967-4

Publishers: Galerie Ronny Van de Velde & LUDION

Price: 60 € - for sale in the M HKA shop

 

UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS

De Vijf Seizoenen. (The Five Seasons)

Galerie Ronny Van de Velde. Fragments from life and works.

Part 4: Humour in Belgian Art (1830-2022) > 7 October - 6 November 2022 

Part 5: Galerie Ronny Van de Velde > 17 February - 12 March 2023