This book captures for the first time the full story of Nordic art and its corresponding way of life from 1820 to 1920. Amply illustrated, this publication discusses a wide range of artists, regardless of gender, and how they related to the European art scene. The authors convey the essence of Nordic art by providing insight into the history of public and private collections, art education, artists' communities, the role of children's books illustrations, and the identity of emerging national states in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. A selection of themes are reviewed, including living with nature, everyday life, artists' portraits, family life, cityscapes, and Nordic mythology.

The publication is edited by two experienced museum professionals from Finland and Sweden, who have published widely on the subject and curated numerous international exhibitions. Contributors include leading experts from all Nordic countries, as well as the UK.

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Exhibition Schedule:
TBD

Bassano, although widely appreciated in his lifetime, was later overshadowed by the immense fame of the Venetian masters Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. Located outside the artistic center of Venice, Jacopo Bassano and his sons were able to produce masterpieces of outstanding quality. They achieved widespread popularity in a variety of genres including biblical-pastoral paintings, portraits, and altarpieces. The purpose of this book is to present a fresh insight into the innovative, artistic practices of Jacopo Bassano and his workshop.

The volume consists of insightful essays by specialists on Jacopo Bassano, including Luisa Attardi, Alessandro Ballarin, Claudia Caramanna, and Kirsi Eskelinen. Special attention is given to Jacopo Bassano's career in his native town Bassano and his strategies for expanding the activities of his workshop in Venice. Furthermore, the articles highlight his relationship to nature and the Venetian countryside and his pioneering work in depicting the changing light during different times of the day. Through interdisciplinary research on two paintings in the collection of the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, the book offers a deeper understanding of Jacopo Bassano's working methods and painterly techniques.

The book accompanies the exhibition organized by the Sinebrychoff Art Museum/ Finnish National Gallery.

Exhibition Schedule
Sinebrychoff Art Museum - Finnish National Gallery
11th September.2024-12th January 2025

This book illuminates a less well-known yet coherent and deeply familiar period in the artistic career of the German expressionist Erich Heckel (1883-1970). The book contextualises the beginnings and the evolution of his work in the years from 1905 to 1918.

In 1914 Heckel volunteered to go to the front, ending up on a hospital train that took him to Flanders. He remained there until the end of the First World War, working as an orderly in Roeselare, Ostend and Ghent. In Flanders, Heckel sketched daily events in the emergency hospital, of the places he visited and the people he encountered. He made woodcuts depicting expressive heads of the orderlies and their patients and of biblical subjects such as The Madonna of Ostend and The Good Samaritan.

As a painter, Heckel was impressed by the landscape and the sea, and the unusual cloud formations. His landscapes and seascapes are an important highlight from this period of his work. The works included are romantic and expressive, natural and symbolic, spiritual, tangible and nostalgic.

Duchamp's Endgame is a passionate tale about the fundamental mysteries of what the work by the Godfather of Dada and Pope of Surrealism. This captivating narrative challenges the official canons and takes the reader on a visually fascinating journey through the mesmerizing labyrinths of the artist's imagination.

For the first time since the Summer of 1912, Geers opens our eyes to exactly what Duchamp was doing in Munich and why he stopped painting in 1919. The mystery has been hidden in plain sight for over a century because every work of art he made holds the key to understanding another work of art. Duchamp is only the beginning of an underground history of art that twists and turns through the paintings of Picabia, Ingres, Guercino, Poussin, Dürer and Raphael, all the way back to Leonardo da Vinci.

This publication showcases more than two hundred works by Ensor from the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (RMFAB). These comprehensive collections date back to the 1890s, representing the oldest public holdings of the 'painter of masks'

Royal Library of Belgium
February 22 - June 2 2024

Thanks to new research and sources, this publication follows in the couple's footsteps from their first encounter, to work made by Arp in remembrance of Taeuber-Arp following her sudden death.

The publication includes works of across a range of genres found in both artists' work, such as collage, design, drawing, and illustrated books, jewellery, painting, photography, reliefs, sculpture, and textiles--demonstrating the equal importance of applied and free art for both artists.

This book offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the visionary American artist Bill Viola created four hours of video as a visual complement to this profound psychological drama. It also tells the story of its commissioning by the then Paris Opera director Gerard Mortier, who pushed the boundaries of what opera could be by inviting a trinity of California-based creatives to re-imagine a Tristan und Isolde for our times. Having just opened the now iconic Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, this was a bold project for the Los Angeles Philharmonic to take on, but it was one which catapulted them into the world of music and breath-taking visuals. The fully staged opera that resulted has been seen in Paris, Toronto, Madrid, Tokyo, Kobe, and concert versions in LA, New York, Rotterdam, London, Helsinki, Stockholm, and St Petersburg, and the revolutionary four-hour video and visuals created by Bill Viola to accompany this opera lives on through this beautifully illustrated book.

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Horta and the Grammar of Art Nouveau offers an innovative analysis of the architectural approach of Victor Horta, the Belgian architect whose creations between 1893 and 1905 were seminal for the development of Art Nouveau architecture.

The first part of the book sheds a new light on the toolbox of Victor Horta by focusing on the architectural sources of one specific work, the Tassel house. It gives an insight into where and how Horta conceived his designs. The second part discusses fundamental themes of Horta's architecture, such as the rhetorical use of structure, the innovative use of materials, and the use of light in the development of the dynamic plan. The third part explores the relation between Horta's invention of Art Nouveau and the colonial enterprise of King Leopold II. This publication is illustrated with maps, plans, and unpublished photographic material commissioned by Victor Horta.

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Exhibition Schedule:

Bozar, Brussels
(October 2023-January 2024)

This lavishly illustrated book brings a new approach to the masterpieces of Songye, a Bantu ethnic group from the central Democratic Republic of the Congo, exploring the styles of the different regions, the identification of Songye master artists, and the specificity of Kifwebe masks.

The World of Songye displays a large number of unpublished and specially commissioned photographs of Songye works of art from private and public collections, and of historic field photographs. Edited by the unchallenged specialists of the subject with contributions from ten distinguished writers, World of Songye analyzes Songye aesthetics and symbols, the Songye representation of animals and weapons and the history of collecting Songye artifacts on the field. It also explores the religious and magical functions and powers of Songye objects and their influence on modern art, focusing in particular on Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Art & Language is an artists' collective that was founded in 1965 by a group of British and American artists. The name Art & Language is derived from the journal Art-Language (first published in Coventry in May 1969), which originated in the work of Terry Atkinson and Michael Baldwin (from 1966) in association with Harold Hurrell and David Bainbridge, who were its original editors. Art & Language was used subsequently to identify the joint and several artistic works of these four to reflect the conversational basis of their activity which, by late 1969, included contributions from New York by Joseph Kosuth, Ian Burn, and Mel Ramsden.

Art & Language is not only focused on creating artworks but also develops its art theory and is of crucial importance in the understanding and theoretical underpinning of conceptual art in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1976 the genealogical thread of this artistic work had been taken into the hands of Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden, with whom it remains.

Still life played an important role within the work of Belgian expressionist and symbolist painter James Ensor (1860-1949). The quality and significance of his intriguingly complex still lifes become clear when placed within the broader development of the genre in Belgium between 1830 and 1930.

The book offers an overview of the nineteenth-century Belgian academic tradition of decorative painting, with intriguing work by lesser-known painters such as Jean Robie, Hubert Bellis, Frans Mortelmans, and Henri De Braekeleer, as well as forgotten female artists such as Berthe Art and Alice Ronner. In the early twentieth century, artists such as Louis Thevenet continued to develop the genre of still life in a traditional manner, while innovators such as the late James Ensor, Léon Spilliaert, Marthe Donas, Walter Vaes, and Gustave Van de Woestyne created highly personal interpretations.

This book is published on the first exhibition ever entirely devoted to James Ensor's still lifes at Mu.ZEE (Ostend).

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Exhibition Schedule:

Mu.ZEE, Ostend, Belgium
(December 16, 2023-April 14, 2024)

An extensive retrospective dedicated to Roger Raveel (1921-2013), one of the most important Belgian painters of the second half of the 20th century

Commemorating the centenary of the artist's birth in 2021, the Centre for Fine Arts - BOZAR will present an extensive retrospective dedicated to Roger Raveel (1921-2013), considered one of the most important Belgian painters of the second half of the twentieth century. While belonging to the generation of artists that emerged following the Second World War, flanked by Magritte and Panamarenko, Raveel radically defended his own independence from the values commonly associated with this generation, notably the supposed superiority of internationality over all forms of local anchorage. In today's context of globalized art and its associated stereotypes, Raveel's choice to draw inspiration from his immediate, intimate surroundings--while always being very well informed about trends in the international art scene--now seems revolutionary, even prophetic.

Showcasing some 120 artworks from public and private collections, this catalogue seeks to demonstrate the singularity of Raveel's pictorial language as it took form over time.

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Exhibition Schedule:

Victor Horta (1861-1947) is considered the most prominent Belgian architect of the Art Nouveau movement. His private house in Brussels, built in 1901, is a rare and stunning example of this style. In 1990, Barbara Van der Wee was given the challenging task of restoring the house--its original architectural concept being compromised over the years due to many renovations--and of transforming it into a house museum.

In this book, she tells the story of her encounter with the house and the various ways in which she explored Horta's home as well as his work, thoughts, and dreams. Through this personal narrative and the text of Françoise Aubry we learn how Horta evolved into a pioneering virtuoso of Art Nouveau and understand how, a century later, Van der Wee developed her own philosophy to restoring this extraordinary piece of heritage in Brussels.

Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere has long been a leading light in the international contemporary art world whose sculptures, installations and drawings endeavor to find the meaning of humanity, physicality, suffering and vitality.

Conceived in the loneliness and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, this book explores De Bruyckere's recent, never-before-seen work inspired by the figure of the angel as portrayed in myths, stories, literature and art history. According to De Bruyckere, an angel--with its warm, dark wings--provides protection, a refuge from fear. The angel guards against a lonely existence and, even more importantly, against a lonely death. It symbolizes the fragile line De Bruyckere treads between artistic poeticism and engagement with current affairs.

This volume will serve as an essential resource on an artist whose works constitute a provocative and influential addition to the contemporary art canon.

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Exhibition Schedule:

Swedish Ecstasy tells the story of renowned Swedish artist Hilma af Klint and her artistic circle as the country sought to reconcile religious beliefs with scientific advances at the turn of the 20th century. While Sweden has often been characterized as a Protestant nation of great engineers and entrepreneurs, the country's spiritual life has long been governed by a less official current, visible in its art and literature. In the early 20th century, mysticism and esoteric speculation ran through the works of some of Sweden's most important artistic and literary figures.

This book explores these mystic visions and their meaning with this intellectual and spiritual milieu. Contemporary artists Cecilia Edefalk, Carsten Höller, Christine Ödlund, Daniel Youssef, and Lars Olof Loeld contribute essays that show how these artworks continue to inspire today.

The wealth of splendid photography in this singular publication features military cemeteries and memorials, conveying their grace, solemn beauty, and deep emotional resonance. Hundreds of cemeteries and memorials from the First and Second World Wars are featured--locations throughout Europe with particular emphasis on sites in England, France, Belgium, and Germany. The book's essays delve into the landscape and architectural history of these hallowed spaces, which were designed by architects such as Charles Henry Holden, Edwin Luytens, John Russell Pope, and Robert Tischler, among others. These landscapes, each a campaign for remembrance and peace, take on new significance alongside comparative images of more recent memorials, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, and the National September 11 Memorial in New York.

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Drumming is a widely admired dance piece choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (b. 1960), set to music by the minimalist composer Steve Reich and featuring costumes by Dries Van Noten, that has been performed continuously around the world since its debut in 1998. It is celebrated for its synthesis of an exceptionally refined structure with an expression of the sheer joy of dancing. Over the 22 years that this piece has been performed, photographers Herman Sorgeloos and Anne Van Aerschot have documented it. This book showcases their outstanding photographic archive, offering a unique view into the aesthetics of this piece. Mathematically precise movement, sustained repetition, geometric use of performance space, and continuous variation are qualities--epitomized in Drumming--that have all become hallmarks of De Keersmaeker's celebrated oeuvre.

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Belgian artist Maarten Vanden Eynde (b. 1977) has established a research-based practice, which spans diverse social, economic, environmental, and anthropological perspectives. His work covers some of the most important subjects of our time from extractionism, ecology, and colonialism to the after-effects of colonialism. The book is built up as an alternative encyclopaedia of the history of human kind, investigating our influence on planet Earth. It proposes an industrial and post-industrial archaeology of the future, mapping out a speculative future-fiction of our evolutionary traces, and offers a survey of Vanden Eynde's work from the past two decades, including Plastic Reef, a massive sculpture made from plastic debris the artist has harvested from all the world's oceans.

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Exhibition Schedule:

An illustrated and in-depth exploration of four of Rosas's early works, Fase, Rosas danst Rosas, Elena's Aria, and Bartók, through sketches, notes, and photographs

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is one of the most prominent choreographers in contemporary dance. Her 1982 debut with Fase immediately attracted the attention of the international dance scene; since then, De Keersmaeker and her company, Rosas, have created an impressive series of choreographic works that have been described as pure writing with movement in time and space. This book explores four of Rosas' early works, Fase, Rosas danst Rosas, Elena'​s Aria, and Bartók, through sketches, notes in reviews, and photographs.

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

This book focuses on the broad palette of disciplines that Aguirre practices, reflecting on these important reoccurring themes that have been present throughout his career, as well as the role played by printmaking in his work. It also highlights the selection of prints and drawings from the rich oeuvre that he has built up over the last 40 years, which he recently donated to the collection of modern prints and drawings for the Plantin Moretus Museum print cabinet.

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Exhibition Schedule: