Middelheim open air sculpture museum

[mountshang]

Just discovered this wonderful collection of photos (by Wim Herten) of a wonderful collection of 20th C. figure sculpture in a public sculpture garden in Antwerp.

From what I read, the collection was assembled in the 1950's -- and hats off to whoever curated it.

There's big names like Rodin and Mailliol, -- but there's also several that were completely new to me: Astrid Novack, Henri Pouvrez, Francois Pompon, Edwin Scharf, Charles LePlae, Jeff Lambeaux, Roel D'Haeze.

Has anyone ever heard of these people ?

It's good to know that there are so many sculptors of our time -- still waiting to be discovered by the curious viewer.



http://www.worldisround.com/articles/65618/index.html

[fritchie]

This is a wonderful resource, Mountshang. I probably called up a dozen or more for close-up view.

[Scout]

Thanks Mountshang, I wish I could give something back to you. Maybe I'll run across something you haven't seen. I'll keep my eyes open for something unusual. Scout

[anne (bxl)]

Amazing, I planned to go there by tomorrow afternoon! ( half an hour drive from Brussels)
It is the place where 23 years ago on a 17th of July (my birthday) I fall in love with sculpture -the reason why I am here today-. From then I visit the park every 2 years during their biennal temporary outdoor exhibition which is more contemporary oriented than the permanent collection.

All those sculptors from the permanent collection that you seem to not know are europeans that have had major international carriers from the end of the 19th century till the fifties or so (well Mountshang, not exactely from "our time"... not mine anyway!).

http://museum.antwerpen.be/middelheimopenluchtmuseum/indexEN.htm

[mountshang]

It is the place where 23 years ago on a 17th of July (my birthday) I fall in love with sculpture -the reason why I am here today-.



Your story gives me goosebumps !

It's true that most of the sculptors on display seem
to have been born before 1920, but one of my favorites is
Kurt Gebauer, who did the "Running Girl" , and he was 9 years old
in 1950 -- so it looks like the park was collecting figure
sculpture with traditional qualities for at least a decade
or two after the rest of the art world had dumped it.


The Belgians are kind of culturally conservative, aren't they ?
Or -- maybe the better word is 'sensual'.

I recently went through a 3-volume set of 20th Century
Belgian sculpture -- most of it was traditional -- and I've
never seen a larger collection of pictures from the 20th
century from any other country --- including Italy.

What's the most recent stuff like that the park has been
collecting ? Can you take some pictures the next time you go ?

I hope they're still dragging behind the rest of the contemporary art world.

(there's no need to be timely -- only timeless)

[anne (bxl)]

What's the most recent stuff like that the park has been
collecting ? Can you take some pictures the next time you go ?

I spent a great afternoon, but sorry, Mountshang, I never walk with a camera. I am a poor photographer and more than pic's I prefer to memorize emotions, which I think are the synthesis of the five sens.

Middelheim a conservative collection? I agree for the sculptures you linked on your first post but have you visit on the site I mentionned the chapter collection>acquisitions?? or expo>archives??
...and btw the selection is widely european not just belgian oriented (Belgium is such a small country!).

[mountshang]

Ouch !

I've looked at the acquisitions and expos -- and there's not a single figure sculpture (unless you count the expo on Rik Wouters -- and he's been dead a hundred years)-- and the architectonic creations are all about puzzlement/disorientation.

I'm sure that there's a lot of pressure on public art institutions like this one to keep marching in step with the international artworld. The corporate sponsors, like all business ventures, want to appear as forward-thinking, and the people chosen as curators have to be qualified through academic credential -- neither of which has anything to do with a sensitivity for the beautiful.

One thing to notice about all this neo-academic style is that it's an international monoculture -- i.e. there is nothing distinctive about the national origins of any of the pieces. They could come from Japan, India, UK, Brazil, Germany, wherever -- and you'd never know.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

I'm afraid that if a sculpture park is going to display non-historical figure sculpture -- it's going to have to explicitly distance itself from the contemporary artworld.