Berlinde De Bruyckere facts for kids

Berlinde De Bruyckere, born in 1964, is a Belgian artist known for her sculptures and art installations. Her artworks often feature shapes that look like human or animal bodies. Her art is inspired by religious pictures, old stories (mythology), and the art style of the Flemish Renaissance. Through her work, she explores big ideas about human life, feelings, and what it means to exist.

About Berlinde De Bruyckere

Berlinde De Bruyckere was born in Ghent, Belgium, in 1964. Her father worked as a butcher, which meant she saw animal bodies often. This helped her feel comfortable with the forms she uses in her art. Her art studio in Ghent used to be a Catholic school. Her family lives in what was once the headmaster's home. When she started her art career, 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 Education and Inspirations

When she was young, Berlinde De Bruyckere went to a Catholic boarding school. This experience later influenced her artwork. She graduated from the LUCA School of Arts in Ghent in 1986. She also spent time as an artist-in-residence at the In Flanders Field Museum. In 2013, she visited a workshop that worked with animal hides. This visit helped her learn new ways to create art. After this, she started making wax casts of animal skins for her sculptures.

How Berlinde De Bruyckere Creates Art

De Bruyckere uses many different materials in her art. These include animal skin, wood, metal, watercolor paint, and gouache. Before she makes her large, life-size sculptures for shows, she creates a smaller model of the artwork. She prefers to build a model rather than just drawing sketches.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, De Bruyckere made big sculptures of human figures using cast wax. In the early 1990s, many of her main artworks included structures made with blankets. Blankets can mean warmth and safety. They also remind us of difficult times, like wars, when people need shelter. When De Bruyckere works on her art, she pays close attention to small details. She focuses on the surfaces of her sculptures to show the meaning of her art. She also uses objects that connect to the story behind her artwork.

Important Artworks

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

Arcangelo I (2022-2023)

Arcangelo I is a sculpture that was part of De Bruyckere's A Simple Prophecy exhibition. It is made from bronze, lead, and chrome steel. She created this piece during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a tribute to healthcare workers who played a huge role in caring for many patients during that time. In some of her earlier works, the figures either do not have a head or their head is covered. Arcangelo I is an example of this style. The angel's body stands still and is covered with a cloth-like texture. This hides the face from view. Its wings extend out gently. 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 De Bruyckere's past works. She often used blankets in her art to show closeness and protection. She also found inspiration in Christianity. She connects religion with blankets, believing that faith should offer comfort and hope.

K36 (The Black Horse) (2003)

The sculpture K36 (The Black Horse) is made from horse skin, wood, iron, and foam. It shows a horse that looks damaged and has no face. Its upper body and front legs are bent down, touching the table it rests on. Horses are a subject De Bruyckere has used many times. She first showed them in her exhibition In Flanders Fields. While she was an artist-in-residence at the In Flanders Field Museum, she saw old photos of war horses that had died on battlefields. These photos inspired her to use horses in her art. At that time, horses became a symbol for death. When De Bruyckere uses horses, she gives them different meanings by changing their positions and shapes. She uses animals to show how humans and animals can both be vulnerable. Horses are usually seen as strong and powerful, but her art shows their fragility.

Lost V (2021-2022)

Lost V is a sculpture of a young horse lying on its side on a marble table, covered with a blanket. It is made from horse skin, marble, fabric, iron, and epoxy. Besides being influenced by her In Flanders Field exhibition about war horses, she was also inspired by Francisco de Zurbarán's painting Agnus Dei. The sculpture makes it seem like the horse's body is either dead, alive, or somewhere in between. The blanket around it acts as a form of self-protection. It reminds us of death and how humans feel about dying.

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

• 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, MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain, Montpellier, 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, Italy.
• 2019: Berlinde De Bruyckere, 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 Exhibitions

• 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.

Where Her Art Can Be Seen

Berlinde De Bruyckere's artwork is part of many public art collections. These include The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Italy, Collezione Gori Fattoria di Cella in Pistoia, Italy, and La Fondation Antoine de Galbert in Paris, France.

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 alongside J.M. Coetzee, a Nobel Prize winner in Literature.
• 1986: She was given 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