Phoebus Focus XXXIVLet yourself be captivated by the floral splendour of Vase of Flowers with Vanitas Symbols by Jan Davidsz. De Heem (1606-1684). De Heem belongs to the canon of Dutch Baroque painting and astonishes everyone with the refined painting technique with which he creates his flower still lives. Through historical sources and material-technical research, you will be introduced to the flourishing seventeenth century and the exuberant and colourful Baroque painting of the time.

Cindy Wright creates large-scale oil paintings on canvas. At first glance the monumental still life paintings appear to be photo-realistic, using the photographic methods of cropping compositions and intense source lighting. But on closer inspection, the range of mark-making and painterly applications become astoundingly apparent. Wright’s work echoes the morbid tradition of ‘vanitas’ from the Dutch Old Masters of the 16th and 17th Century. Between beauty and decay, archetypal symbols l...

Pieter Bruegel invites us to study and to admire his work down to the tiniest element. He was a trained and experienced miniaturist, draughtsman, and print designer: skills that combined with his brilliant painting technique enable us to read every image and every detail. Bruegel created a world of unprecedented visual richness: it is impossible to take in everything at once, as there is so much to see. Alongside this rich viewing experience, Bruegel always offers layers of visual and intelle...

The first monograph to be published on the impressive work of artist Lita Cabellut. Text in English and German.

Johan Maelwael (1365/70-1415), internationally known as Jean Malouel, was one of the most important West European artists of the late Middle Ages. He grew up in Nijmegen as a scion of a family of successful heraldic painters and later became the court painter of the Dukes of Burgundy. This great innovator in painting created his multifaceted oeuvre nearly a century before Hieronymus Bosch. His painting is characterized by elegantly sophisticated figures, a high degree of realism and a bright ...

From Memling to Rubens

The Golden Age of Flanders

Why did Hans Memling paint everything in such minute detail? How did Rubens, in just a few brushstrokes, create special effects that Steven Spielberg would envy? And why was the Southern Netherlands the artistic centre of the world for three centuries?

From Memling to Rubens: The Golden Age of Flanders tells the story of Flemish art from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as you’ve never read it before. It’s a rollercoaste...

The Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp is

a house full of art. Intriguing art that inspires

wonder and emotion. Today, the museum is internationally

renowned as the home of Pieter Bruegel

the Elder’s famous painting Mad Meg. To loyal fans,

it is a cherished, well-kept secret. Visitors always

marvel at how so much beauty was gathered in one

place. Who amassed this unique collection? And

how and why was this museum established?

The museum is a monument to two people:

Henriëtte Mayer van d...

The gaze that looks ahead and then slowly wanders down or to the side, looking for traces and signs of a landscape, rather than the landscape itself. Van den Broek paints what others pay no attention to or simply overlook. Cracks, borders, shadows, lines, corners, and also bridges, trees, trucks, reflections. They are set up crisply, and stripped of their frills (or as van den Broek puts it: “Cut away the snoopy!”), which leaves them somewhere between figuration and abstraction. Are we in...

Langverwachte monografie van videokunstenaar David Claerbout

In een gesprek met Jonathan Pouthier, filmcurator van het Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou (Parijs, Frankrijk), reflecteert videokunstenaar David Claerbout voor het eerst in de diepte over zijn werk van de afgelopen tien jaar in relatie tot actuele discussies over fotografie, film en het virtuele. The Silence of the Lens biedt een unieke inkijk in het maakproces van recente videowerken als The Close, Aircraft (F.A.L....