Two memorable milestones for the KMSKA
Exactly eight months after reopening, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) is celebrating two notable milestones. In a celebratory reveal, the KMSKA today has welcomed its 500,000th visitor. Moreover, nine new art loans are displayed in the museum. In the selection: important Flemish Masters from The Rubens House, two works by Artemisia Gentileschi and an impressive Anish Kapoor.
KMSKA gives thanks to its Finest Visitors
Today at 10 o'clock, the KMSKA festively announced that it had reached the half-million visitors’ mark. In the De Keyser Hall, visitor No. 500,000 was welcomed by brass band 't Akkoord and the majorettes of Majoretski. The visitor received a bouquet of flowers, a present and was granted free entry to the museum for a year. On the museum façade, you can furthermore read the message "500,000 X thanks".
"Half a million visitors in eight months is a fantastic achievement! I am immensely proud that we can announce this result today. A warm thank you to all visitors and to all the KMSKA team members who work every day to make this museum an open house for everyone. It's great to see that these efforts are rewarded and that visitors enjoy our museum to the full. Absolutely The Finest Feeling," says Luk Lemmens, president KMSKA vzw.
Special art loans
Eight months after reopening and half a million visitors later. This is also the ideal time for KMSKA to add to its collection presentation for the first time. "We have added a lot of notable works: an Anish Kapoor to dream away at, two works by Artemisia Gentileschi - the absolute power woman of the Baroque era - and also a number of works from The Rubens House find a temporary home here," says Nico Van Hout, Head of Collections.
Thanks to a private collector, the KMSKA could add its first Anish Kapoor to the collection. It is a deep blue, mirrored disc-shaped object. The work plays with emptiness and volume and, owing to striking reflections of light and sound, it gives you a true 'Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole' feeling. With a diameter of 230 cm and a weight of no less than 800 kg, Untitled is also the heaviest object on the walls of the renovated museum. Anish Kapoor is one of the great contemporary masters. This important international work enhances the current ensemble in the Colour Hall.
The KMSKA also resolutely opts for more women in the collection. Two works by Artemisia Gentileschi, from a private collection, David and Goliath and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, were added. Artemisia Gentileschi was the absolute power woman of the Baroque era. A feminist avant la lettre. She managed to render well-known stories in her own unique way, and always with a feminine touch. She was also one of the few women in her time who managed to obtain commissions from important monarchs and set up her own studio.
The Rubens House, which closed its doors earlier this year for a thorough renovation, is also a guest at the KMSKA. One of the absolute highlights from the selection of loans is Peter Paul Rubens' Self-Portrait. It is one of the few self-portraits Rubens ever painted and it shows his genius as a painter and portraitist. It was therefore obvious for this work to be given a place of honour in the Rubens Gallery of the renovated museum. Henri IV at the Battle of Ivry also moved to the KMSKA, making it the first battle scene by Rubens to be displayed in the gallery. Saint Matthew by Anthony van Dyck, in turn, is the perfect prelude to the exhibition Heads which opens at the KMSKA on 20 October. Indeed, the apostle is said to be based on a study of a head. The museum can also count on one sculpture: Sleep of Silenus, the first work by François Du Quesnoy in the KMSKA collection. For the time being, Jacob Jordaens' Neptune and Amphitrite and Bagpiper were the last works of art to move to 't Zuid. Later this year, Rubens' Altar Crowning will also be on display there. The KMSKA is particularly focused on Rubens and art from the 16th and 17th centuries and is known as one of the leading museums of Flemish Masters. It is therefore the perfect home for these amazing works of art.
NOTE TO THE PRESS
Visual imagery can be found here
