Donations from home and abroad enrich KMSKA collection

The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) announces four recent donations. Sieuwert Verster is adding the first works by Ysbrant van Wijngaarden to the museum's collection, and the American Stéphane Janssen Trust is augmenting the oeuvre of artists Jan Cox and Fred Bervoets in the collection. The works will be on display at the museum during the summer months. Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, with a substantial donation, has made it possible for KMSKA to now possess the largest Schmalzigaug collection in the world. This donation will form the basis of an exhibition in the Print Room in September 2024. Finally, the Maurice Verbaet Centrum is donating a sculpture by the renowned Polish-Belgian artist Tapta to the museum

Ysbrant, Cox and Bervoets   

With the support of Rodolphe Janssen and Anne Sanchez, the American Stéphane Janssen Trust is donating two works by Fred Bervoets (Self-portrait with dragon and Knight) and a portrait by Jan Cox (Fred in his eternal storm). Both artists are well-known in the Antwerp scene as well as internationally. Their work is inspired, among others, by the Cobra movement.

Amsterdam musicologist and documentary maker Sieuwert Verster is donating five paintings by expressionist artist Ysbrant van Wijngaarden: Cleopatra, The beast and the beauty, Tribolo, Faraway lands and Wigwam. These five canvases provide a fine overview of Ysbrant's oeuvre, whose work was previously absent from the museum's collection.

Both donations were realised through the mediation of Adriaan Raemdonck of Galerie De Zwarte Panter. With these additions, the museum is able to paint a more complete picture of exuberant, colourful, figurative painting in Antwerp from the late 1960s onwards. The KMSKA is the place par excellence to represent this movement. The artworks by Ysbrant, Cox and Bervoets can be admired in the first-floor exhibition hall from Friday 30 June to Sunday 3 September 2023.

Schmalzigaug

The KMSKA has the largest collections of works by James Ensor and Rik Wouters in the world. It is now adding a third name to that list. Thanks to a substantial donation by Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, Jules Schmalzigaug is now also best represented at the KMSKA. The museum thus holds the largest collections in the world of three artists who calibrated modernism in Belgium, pre-eminently in terms of colour.

Anyone walking through the museum's new white halls will often come across him: Jules Schmalzigaug. This, of course, is no coincidence. In the museum's collection, Ensor is a pivotal point between the narrative art of the 19th century and the modern iconoclasm of the post-1880s. Schmalzigaug fulfils a similar role. He considered the red that Peter Paul Rubens painted and the use of colour by James Ensor, the two titans in the KMSKA collection.

Thanks to this acquisition, the KMSKA can unlock all the life stages and evolutions in Jules Schmalzigaug's creative process: from his earliest academy studies, over his dark and symbolist drawings to his dashing, futuristic arabesque rhythms, and the colourful pastels and supple figure drawings he made in The Hague and Scheveningen in his last years of life.

Ronny and Jessy Van de Velde became captivated by Jules Schmalzigaug in the 1980s thanks to a number of paintings exhibited at KMSKA. They started an intense search for his work and succeeded in putting him on the map through numerous publications and exhibitions. The donation - in memory of Wouter Van de Velde - includes pastels, drawings and sketches. These will form the basis for an exhibition in the Print Room in September 2024. The endowment also includes a host of archive documents. Thanks to these, the KMSKA is now also the main documentation centre dedicated to Schmalzigaug.

Tapta

Late last month, the Maurice Verbaet Centrum, centre of expertise of Belgian post-war modern art, announced it was donating a sculpture by the renowned Polish-Belgian artist Tapta to the KMSKA. Maurice Verbaet strongly believes that museums in general, and KMSKA in particular, are places to show and preserve art for future generations. He is therefore happy to add a unique sculpture by Tapta (Maria Irena Boyé) to the museum collection. The artist evolved from textile art to what she herself called "flexible sculptures". From 1981, she also made sculptures in industrial rubber (neoprene), which can be displayed in public spaces.

Earlier this year, the KMSKA also announced the exhibition FOR GIGI, a tribute to Gilberte Ghesquière. This exhibition runs from 23 September 2023 to 7 January 2024 and shows the works of art from Gilberte Ghesquière's bequest. With 131 works of art, this is the most important donation to the KMSKA after the Van Ertborn bequest of 1841. The Lens-Ghesquière bequest consists mostly of modern art and adds important international names to the KMSKA collection, including Pablo Picasso, Egon Schiele, Sonia Delaunay, Francis Bacon, Tom Wesselmann, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, among others.

The benefactors who support the KMSKA with donations and bequests play a crucial role in building and maintaining the particularly valuable collection that the KMSKA conserves and exhibits. Over 40% of the collection consists of legacies and donations. The museum is therefore profoundly grateful to these people.

NOTE TO THE PRESS 

Images can be found here.

On 29 June at 7pm, the presentation of the Sieuwert Verster and Stéphane Janssen Trust donations will officially take place in the presence of Fred Bervoets and the benefactors. If you would like to be present at this event, you may send a message via the contact details below. You are of course also welcome to come and admire the works at any other time. For this too, you can book an appointment via the contact details below.

Curious about what else is on at the KMSKA this summer? You can find out more here