Berlinde De Bruyckere facts for kids

Berlinde De Bruyckere (born 1964) is a Belgian modern artist. She creates amazing sculptures and art installations. Her artworks often look like human or animal bodies.

Berlinde's art is inspired by many things. These include religious pictures, old stories (mythology), and the art style from the Flemish Renaissance. Her art often explores big ideas about being human. She shows feelings, life, and raw emotions in her work.

About Berlinde De Bruyckere

Berlinde De Bruyckere was born in Ghent, Belgium, in 1964. Her father worked as a butcher. This meant she saw animal bodies often, which made her comfortable with the idea of them.

Berlinde's art studio in Ghent used to be a Catholic school. Her family lives in what was once the headmaster's house. When she was starting out, she had to convince her parents to let her go to art school. To pay for her studies, she gave drawing lessons to others.

Her Art Training

When she was young, Berlinde De Bruyckere went to a Catholic boarding school. This experience later influenced her art. She finished her studies at the LUCA School of Arts in Ghent in 1986. She also spent time working at the In Flanders Fields Museum.

In 2013, she visited a workshop that worked with animal hides. This trip helped her learn new ways to create art. After that, she started using wax casts of animal skins in her sculptures.

How She Makes Art

De Bruyckere uses many different materials. These include animal skin, wood, metal, watercolor, and gouache. Before she makes a large sculpture, she builds a small model of it. She does this instead of drawing sketches.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Berlinde made big wax sculptures of human figures. In the early 1990s, many of her main artworks featured blankets. Blankets can mean warmth and safety. But they can also show difficult times, like wars, when people need shelter. Berlinde pays close attention to details in her work. She focuses on the surfaces to show the meaning of her art. She also uses objects that connect to the story behind her artwork.

Famous Artworks

PXIII, at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Arcangelo I (2022-2023) is a sculpture from her A Simple Prophecy exhibition. It is made from bronze, lead, and chrome steel. Berlinde created it during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a way to honor healthcare workers. They played a huge role in taking care of many patients during that time.

In many of her older works, the figures either have no head or their head is covered. Arcangelo I is like this. The angel's body stands still, covered with a cloth-like texture. This hides the face from view. Its wings are barely visible. The angel seems to float slightly, but also feels heavy. This shows the burden it carries. The sculpture is mysterious but also comforting. The cloth-like texture is inspired by Berlinde's past work. She often used blankets in her art. They symbolize closeness and protection. Berlinde also found inspiration in Christianity. She connects religion with blankets, believing faith should bring comfort and hope.

The K36 (The Black Horse) (2003) is made from horse skin, wood, iron, and foam. Berlinde has used horses in her art many times. She first showed them in her exhibition In Flanders Fields. While working at the In Flanders Fields Museum, she saw photos of war horses that had died on the battlefield. This inspired her to use horses in her art. At that time, the horses became a symbol for death. When Berlinde uses horses now, they can have different meanings. She places them in different positions and changes their shapes. She uses animals to show how we are all physically vulnerable. Horses are usually seen as strong and powerful.

Lost V (2021-2022) is a sculpture of a young horse. It is lying on its side on a marble table and covered with a blanket. The materials used were horse skin, marble, fabric, iron, and epoxy. Besides the war horses from her In Flanders Field exhibition, she was also inspired by Francisco de Zurbarán's Agnus Dei. The sculpture makes you wonder if the horse is dead, alive, or somewhere in between. The blanket around it acts as a form of self-protection. It reminds us about death and how humans feel about dying.

Exhibitions

Solo Shows

• 2024: Berlinde De Bruyckere: City of Refuge III, Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy.
• 2024: Berlinde De Bruyckere: No Life Lost, Artipelag, Stockholm, Sweden.
• 2023: Berlinde De Bruyckere: Crossing a bridge on fire, MAC/CCB Museum of Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal.
• 2023: Berlinde De Bruyckere: City of Refugee II, Diözesan museum Freising, Freising, Germany.
• 2023: Berlinde De Bruyckere: City of Refugee I, Commanderie de Peyrassol, Flassans sur Issole, France.
• 2022: Berlinde De Bruyckere: Plunder/ Ekphrasis, Montpellier, MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain, France.
• 2022: Berlinde De Bruyckere: PEL/ Becoming the figure, Arp Museum, Remagen, Germany.
• 2021: Berlinde De Bruyckere: Engelenkeel, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
• 2020: Berlinde De Bruyckere, Middelheimmuseum, Antwerp, Belgium.
• 2019: Aletheia, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin.
• 2019: Berlinde De Bruyckere, San Sebastian, Rubenshuis, Antwerp, Belgium.
• 2019: A single bed, a single room, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy.
• 2019: It almost seemed a lily, Hof Van Busleyden, Mechelen, Belgium.
• 2017: Berlinde de Bruyckere: Embalmed, Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark.
• 2013: Berlinde De Bruyckere: In the Flesh, Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, Austria.
• 2011: Berlinde De Bruyckere, DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal, Canada.
• 2004: Berlinde De Bruyckere, Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, Switzerland.
• 2000: In Flanders Fields, In Flanders Fields Museum, Ieper, Belgium.
• 1997: De Slaapzaal, Kunstvereniging Diepenheim, Diepenheim, The Netherlands.
• 1994: Washington Velvets (Two from Flanders), The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA.
• 1993: Huis, Galerie Joost Declercq, Ghent, Belgium.
• 1991: Berlinde De Bruyckere, Gallerie van Academie, Kasteel Blauwendael, Waasmunster, Belgium.
• 1990: Reflecting on Confinement and death, Museo Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium.
• 1990: Berlinde De Bruyckere, Galleria S. & H. de Buck, Gent, Belgium.
• 1988: Berlinde De Bruyckere, Galleria Fred Lanzenberg, Brussel, Belgium.

Group Shows

• 2023: The Embodied Spirit, White Cube, Seoul, Korea.
• 2022: Strange: Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville, Spain.
• 2020: Still Still Life, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Tampere, Finland.
• 2017: Beyond The Pleasure Principle: Affective Operations in Art, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland.
• 2014: Barockt, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden.
• 2011: Shape of Things to Come, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK.
• 2005: Baroque and Neobaroque: The Hell of the Beautiful, Artium, Salamanca, Spain.
• 2000: Selection Summer 2000, The Drawing Center, New York NY.
• 1995: La condition humaine, een confrontatie, Witte Zaal, Ghent, Belgium.
• 1990: Ateliers d'été / Sommeratelier, Deutsche Messe AG, Hanover, Germany.

Art Collections

Berlinde De Bruyckere's artwork can be seen in many public art collections. These include The Museum of Modern Art in New York. You can also find her art at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin. Other places are Collezione Gori Fattoria di Cella in Pistoia, and La Fondation Antoine de Galbert in Paris.

Awards and Honors

• 2015: She received an honorary doctorate from Ghent University.
• 2013: She was chosen to represent Belgium at the 55th Venice Biennale. She worked with J.M. Coetzee, who won a Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1986: She won the Young Belgian Art Prize.

See also

• Watercolor painting
• Gouache
• Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting
• LUCA School of Arts
• Sculpture
• Flanders Field Museum
• Francisco de Zurbarán
• Lamb of God