Arty Weekend
From the Flemish Masters to a pantheon to plastic, you can pack seven centuries of art and design into three days in Brussels, writes Ian Sclater
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
A bit French but not France, a little Dutch but not Holland, Belgium has historically marked the transition from Latin to northern cultures. It is fitting that the capital, Brussels, is the forum for EU member states.
With one of Europe’s powerhouse national art collections, an entire museum dedicated to its most famous artist, more Art Nouveau buildings than anywhere else and a vibrant design industry, it has much to offer the visiting culture vulture.
Most visitors to Brussels will spend their time in the roughly five-sided city centre (hence its nickname, the Pentagon), which is divided into the ‘upper town’ and ‘lower town’. The most popular way between the two parts is the Mont des Arts (Arts Hill), at the top of which you’ll find the city’s two main art centres.
Musical Instruments Museum (see ART NOUVEAU)
GALLERIES & MUSEUMS
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium is the country’s leading cultural institution. The main art collection is housed in vast halls divided into two branches with a single admission fee for both.
The Museum of Ancient Art has groundbreaking work by the Flemish Primitives along with works by Flemish masters such as Rubens, Jordaens and Van Dyck. It also includes one the world’s largest collections of works by Pieter Brueghel the Elder as well as some masters from outside Belgium such as Tintoretto, Bosch and Rembrandt.
The Museum of Modern Art is closed for renovation until September 2012, when it will reopen as the Fin de Siècle Museum. Meanwhile visitors can see a temporary selection, including important works by Wouters, Dali, de Chirico, Ernst, Tanguy, Bacon and others. Mar 29-July 1, 2012 ‘Surrealism in Paris’. Works by some of the foremost artists associated with possibly the most important artistic movement of the 20th century. www.fine-arts-museum.be
A giraffe in a wine glass? A limbless torso on a beach? An eagle wearing a jacket? It must be Magritte. The Magritte Museum houses the world’s most extensive collection of works by the Surrealist, René Magritte (1898-1967), the most important Belgian painter of the 20th century. Over 200 works are displayed over several floors to form a chronological and themed journey through his life and work.
Famed for his subversive imagery, which anticipated pop art and conceptual art, Magritte worked in a variety of media, including oils, gouaches, drawings, sculptures, painted objects, graphic art and films directed by Magritte himself. www.musee-magritte-museum.be
Designed by Victor Horta (see ART NOUVEAU), the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts is itself a work of art - a sprawling, multi-level complex for performing and visual arts (Beaux-Arts – get it?) with adjoining galleries and theatres. The expansive exhibition spaces host up to ten shows a year and have recently showcased the likes of Jeff Wall, Frida Kahlo and Gilbert and George. Oct 6-Jan 15, 2012 A series of simultaneous exhibitions celebrates Brazilian painting, sculpture and photography from the 19th century to the present day. www.bozar.be
For a spot of gallery browsing, head for the historic Sablon district not far from the Grand Place (Europe’s most impressive city square?), where you’ll get your fix in a cluster of historic streets well populated with galleries offering a range of work.
In the picturesque Rue de Rollebeek, there’s the Rollebeek Gallery (contemporary art) and the Galerie Pinel & Partner (photography). In the Rue des Minimes, look out for the Gallery Schana B. (specialising in works by the painter Corneille, a founder of the COBRA avant-garde movement), Galerie Jan de Maere (16th and 17th centuries Flemish paintings, small sculptures from the 15th to 19th centuries and Old Master drawings from the 16th to 19th centuries), Harmakhis Archeologie (rare ancient art) and Boon Gallery (late 19th and early 20th century European paintings).
ART NOUVEAU
Brussels is the capital of Art Nouveau, and it only takes a few minutes strolling around the city to be struck by the legacy left by the movement in the city’s buildings. Practically everywhere you look there are ornately shaped and painted facades, stonework treated like sculpture and decorative wrought iron, all embellished with recurring arabesque and naturalistic motifs.
Born of a desire to break away from imitating styles of the past, Art Nouveau boomed between 1893 and 1910. Its influence spread to Gaudi in Spain and, of course, Mackintosh in Scotland.
Brussels boasts the father of Art Nouveau in architect/interior designer/decorative artist Victor Horta. (You may arrive in the city at one of his creations, Central Station.) Horta’s private house is open to the public as the Horta Museum, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Completed in 1901, it is poetry in architecture and interior design, with three floors merging seamlessly and harmoniously into one another. No detail is too small, from door handles and keyholes to coat hooks and even the brackets supporting the toilet cistern. www.hortamuseum.be
If you don’t make it to Horta’s house (it’s a few kilometers from the city centre by tram), just round the corner and down the hill from the Magritte Museum is the fantastic Art Nouveau building which houses the Musical Instruments Museum. (The view from its rooftop terrace cafe is one of the best in Brussels.)
DESIGN
For the best in Belgian design, from fashion to interiors, head for the Dansaert district in and around the Rue Antoine Dansaert and the Place Saint-Géry. The Soho of Brussels, this previously rundown part of the city was adopted some 20 years ago by enterprising designers attracted by cheap warehouse and retail space. They proceeded to transform the area into a modish mecca, from haute couture studios to second hand luxury clothes shops specialising in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.
A couple of Artmag favourites: The legendary Belgian hat designer Elvis Pompilio (“I make hats you can wear. I don’t want to make art.”) will help you get ahead from a bewildering selection of women’s and men’s ‘chapeaux’, while MGX, the world’s first and only shop of its kind, sells lighting which is drawn by renowned designers, created by laser beam and hand-finished in synthetic materials to resemble artworks as much as mere lights. www.elvispompilio.com, www.mgxbymaterialise.be
DRASTIC PLASTIC
Spread over several floors of a warehouse in the Rue Locquenghien, the Plasticarium is unique in the world. This mesmerising assemblage of artworks, furniture, mannequins, wall pieces, household items and electrical goods is the work of top designers in an age when brightly coloured plastics were de rigueur.
Packed with icons of 1960s pop culture, the collection includes work by the designer of the furniture for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Highlight: a remarkable, life-size – and lifelike – reproduction of a woman who had a terminal illness and wanted to have herself immortalised for all time, including the use of her own hair. The Plasticarium is the obsession of Philippe Decelle, himself an artist in plastic, who conducts 1 ½-hour tours. By appt., min 10/max. 20 people, €10 p.p., T +32 (0) 2 344 98 21
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Brussels Antiques & Fine Arts Fair, Jan 21- 29, 2012. Some 40,000 visitors flock to see antiquities, antique jewellery, furniture, ceramics, paintings, sculpture, carpets, tapestry, books and photography by exhibitors from around the world. www.brafa.be
Art Brussels, April 19-22, 2012. One of Europe’s leading contemporary art fairs. www.artbrussels.be
Design September Held annually throughout most of September, this citywide event celebrates Belgian excellence in fashion and interiors with an extensive programme of exhibitions and open doors. www.designseptember.be
FURTHER INFO
Tourism Flanders-Brussels, T 0207 307 7738 (live operator line Mon-Fri). www.visitflanders.co.uk
HOW TO GET THERE
BMI Regional flies between Edinburgh and Brussels up to three times a day. Fares from £104 one-way. www.flybmi.com
