Berlinde De Bruyckere

Themes in her artwork display human experience, existence, and raw emotion.

The recorded working language is Dutch. The field of work recorded is visual arts of Belgium and Belgian sculpture. Places of work recorded in the authority are Ghent. Work by Berlinde De Bruyckere is recorded in the collections of Finnish National Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Mu.ZEE - Kunstmuseum aan Zee and De Pont. Distinctions recorded are Young Belgian Art Prize, Vlaamse Cultuurprijs voor Beeldende Kunst, Laureate of the Academy - Class of Fine Arts and Commander of the Order of the Crown.

• Name — Berlinde De Bruyckere • Born — 1964 • Birthplace — Ghent, Belgium • Field — Sculpture

Berlinde De Bruyckere was born in Ghent, Belgium, in 1964. Her dad worked as a butcher, which desensitized her to seeing corpses. De Bruyckere's studio in Ghent was once a Catholic school, and what used to be the headmaster's home is where her family lives. At the beginning of her artistic career, she had to convince her parents to let her go to the art academy, and in order to fund her studies, she gave drawing lessons. In her youth, De Bruyckere was sent to Catholic boarding school which would later influence her artwork. She graduated from the LUCA School of Arts in Ghent in 1986, and did her residency at the In Flanders Field Museum. In 2013, she visited a skin-trader workshop in Anderlecht, Belgium, which expanded her repertoire, and she began working with wax casts of animal hides.

• Illustration — PXIII, Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Hobart, Tasmania, Australia Arcangelo I (2022-2023) is part of De Bruyckere A Simple Prophecy exhibition. The sculpture is made out of bronze, lead, and chrome steel. It was made during the COVID-19 pandemic and is a tribute to healthcare workers and how they had a major role during the pandemic as they were taking care of many patients during that time. In her previous works, the body figures either do not have a head or their head is covered. Arcangelo I is an example of this method. The angel's body is in a still position, covered with a cloth-like texture, making the face hidden from the viewer and their wings faintly extending. The Angel is slightly hovered yet weighted down as it represents it being burden, by the weight it is carrying. It's mysterious yet comforting and inviting to the viewer. The cloth-like texture is an influence from De Bruyckere's past works, as she would use blankets as an element in her art as they symbolize intimacy and protection. Furthermore, Bruyckere got inspiration from Christianity and how she connects it with blankets, as she believes religion should give comfort and hope. The K36 (The Black Horse) (2003) is made from horse skin, wood, iron, and polyurethane foam. It is a mutilated horse that has no facial futures, and its upper body and front legs are crouching down and touching the surface of the table that it is on top of. Horses have been a subject that Bruyckere has used repeatedly. It was first introduced in her exhibition In Flanders Fields. When Bruyckere was doing her residency at the In Flanders Field Museum, she found photos of war horses that were dead on the battlefield, which inspired her to use horses as her subject. At that time, when she discovered the photos, the horses became a metaphor for death. When De Bruyckere uses horses, it becomes a whole different meaning as she puts them in different positions and changes their figures. Bruyckere uses animals to share physical vulnerability with animals, as horses are traditionally seen as strong and powerful. Lost V (2021-2022) is a sculpture of a young horse laying on its side on the marble table and covered with a blanket. The material that was used for it was horse skin, marble, textile, iron, and epoxy. Besides being influenced by her past exhibition of In Flanders Field of war horse, she was also influenced by Francisco de Zurbarán's Agnus Dei. The sculpture gives the illusion that the body of the horse is either dead, alive, or between life and death, and the blanket around it is used as a self-protection. Its a reminder of death and how humans feel about death and mortality.

• 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, Montpellier, MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain, 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. • 2019: Berlinde De Bruyckere, San Sebastian, 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.

• 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