Meet the collection: Museum in Motion
Exhibition view 'Museum in Motion', M Leuven, 2022, photo: © Dirk Pauwels for M Leuven
MEET THE COLLECTION
Museum in Motion
You can still come and see 'Museum in Motion' at M until March 2024. That collection presentation gives around 20 valuable and interesting acquisitions a place in the museum galleries for the first time. In this article, we highlight some of them.
Exhibition view 'Museum in Motion', M Leuven, 2022, photo: © Dirk Pauwels for M Leuven
‘Saint Arnulf of Metz’
Hendrik Roesen (?), ca. 1480-1500, M Leuven collection
M's collection is closely linked to the history of Leuven and the former Duchy of Brabant. You can still see that in the way we work. We conduct art-historical and scientific research on sculpture from Leuven and Brabant from the late Middle Ages, and try to further complement that important and large sub-collection with special acquisitions. Such as this 'Saint Arnulf of Metz', a late Gothic oak sculpture we acquired in 2021. Research is still ongoing, but it is likely to have been made by Hendrik Roesen (active 1496-1518), a Leuven sculptor who was strongly influenced by Jan II Borman (c. 1460-1516/20). Works by Roesen are very rare. They are predominantely found in East Brabant churches, as well as in the collection of M. In fact, M is the only museum that has any of Roesen's work. In 2019, we received two rare signed retable fragments by Roesen on loan from the Flemish Community. They were immediately recognised as Flemish Masterpiece.
‘Saint Arnulf of Metz’, Hendrik Roesen, ca. 1480-1500, M Leuven, photo Cedric Verhelst for meemoo. Art in Flanders
Untitled (Bacchus)
Marie Zolamian, 2019, Cera collection at M Leuven
The Cera collection of Belgian contemporary art was expanded in 2021 to include three paintings by Marie Zolamian (born 1975). Zolamian was born in Lebanon but lives and works in Belgium. In her work, she confronts Eastern and Western cultures, histories and ways of thinking. She fluctuates between figurative and abstract, and likes to refer to art, fables, fairy tales, dreams as well as courtly literature.
You can view the three paintings in 'Museum in Motion'. They are influenced by medieval art, miniatures and book painting, but with their very own, enigmatic interpretation. The result is personal compositions that not immediately reveal their sources of inspiration.
With acquisitions like these, Cera aims to support emerging and/or underexposed home-grown artists. M has held them on long-term loan since 2011. We look after it, exhibit pieces from it and advise Cera on new acquisitions.
Marie Zolamian, Untitled (Bacchus), 2019, Cera collection at M Leuven, photo: the artist
'Oil sketch for the Vander Kelen triptych'
Gustave Vanaise, ca. 1888, M Leuven collection
This oil sketch was sold at auction in Paris in 2021. It served as the basis for three canvases painted by Gustave Vanaise (1854-1902) in 1888-1889 for mayor Leopold Vander Kelen's (1813-1895) private chapel: 'Military Fame', 'Municipal Power' and 'Arts and Peace'. The chapel was located in a now-defunct part of the Vander Kelen-Mertens mansion. The three paintings are the only remains of that chapel. With their impressive size, they are over 370 cm tall, they give an idea of the grandeur the room must have radiated. Notable difference between Vanaise's sketch and the final version is that, for the middle scene, the figure on horseback had a view of none other than the mayor himself. His sons – senator Victor (1851-1931) and politician Léon (1856-1919) – were also depicted as knights.
‘Oil sketch for the Vander Kelen triptych, Gustave Vanaise, ca. 1888, M Leuven, photo Cedric Verhelst for meemoo. Art in Flanders
‘“Brecht” holding “Communie” Flag’
Klaas Rommelaere, 2020, Flemish Community collection at M Leuven
To support the arts sector during the pandemic, the Flemish Community bought works worth almost four million euro in 2021. M was closely involved in the selection and received 60 on long-term loan. One of them is '"Brecht" holding "Communion" Flag' by Klaas Rommelaere (born 1986). The sculpture is part of the 2020 'Dark Uncles' series, a series of puppets representing important people in the artist's life. Each doll is covered with embroidered biographical scenes and scenes, overlapping and blending into each other. Rommelaere drew the designs for the scenes. He then sent these out to as many as 90 people, mostly senior citizens, who embroidered the scenes by hand – a time-consuming and intensive job but which they could do at home during lockdown.
Klaas Rommelaere, ‘“Brecht” holding “Communie” Flag’ 2020, Flemish Community collection at M Leuven, photo: the artist
'The meeting of Abraham and Melchisedek'
Jan Rombouts and studio, ca. 1525-1530, M Leuven
M presented the first ever retrospective on Leuven Renaissance painter, printmaker and glazier Jan I Rombouts (1475/85-1535) in 2012. Titled 'Signed Jan R. A Renaissance Master Rediscovered', it was the result of in-depth research. Thanks to that research, the stained-glass medallion 'The Meeting of Abraham and Melchisedek' and which we bought from a London art dealer in 2020, could be attributed to Rombouts' studio. Such glass medallions were embedded as decoration in the windows of monasteries and patrician houses. Leuven workshops such as Rombouts' made one for the then St Peter's Hospital in Brusselssestraat, now the Romanesque Gate.
M's collection includes a number of works from Rombouts' studio. In addition to this medallion, we own nine fire-glass windows and four altar wings, including three Flemish Masterpieces. This puts us in the company of top international museums. For instance, Rombouts' stained-glass windows are also represented in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Jan Rombouts and studio, 'The meeting of Abraham and Melchisedek', ca. 1525-1530, M Leuven, photo: artinflanders.be, Dominique Provost
'Nuclear Plant'
Lisa Vlaemminck, 2020, Flemish Community collection at M Leuven
The Flemish Community annually buys artworks by artists living and working in Flanders. Some of these purchases end up on long-term loan at M, such as 'Nuclear Plant' by Brussels-based artist Lisa Vlaemminck (born 1992).
Vlaemminck explores the boundaries and conventions of painting. She creates a new universe, where different laws and rules apply. What feels familiar soon turns out not to be what it seems. This work is a good example of that. The composition is reminiscent of a traditional still life. But if you look closely, you can see the many individual components and semi-transparent layers of paint that Vlaemminck has applied on top of each other.
‘Nuclear Plant’, Lisa Vlaemminck, 2020, Flemish Community collection at M Leuven © de kunstenaar
