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Sigefride Bruna Hautman

14.02.25

31.08.25

M Leuven

‘Geïnstitutionaliseerde Waardigheid’, Sigefride Bruna Hautman, 1982, foto: Luc Wauman

Poetry captured in images – this is an apt description of Sigefride Bruna Hautman’s work. She has been making sculptures, reliefs, installations, videos, drawings, collages and textual work since the 1980s. Her oeuvre is distinctly figurative and moves between hyperrealism and stylization, between legibility and symbolism, simplicity and complex layering.

Portret van Sigefride Bruna Hautman — Foto: Marie Dreezen voor M Leuven

Bruna Hautman (b.1955) lives and works in Antwerp. She has exhibited her work in diverse museums and institutions, including Mu.ZEE (Ostend), M HKA (Antwerp), De Vereniging voor het Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst (Ghent), Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens (Deurle), Extra City (Antwerp), Campo Santo (Ghent), Melly (Formerly known as Witte de With, Rotterdam), Casa Frollo (Venice), Villa Borghese (Rome) and Skironio Museum Polychronoopulos (Athens).

Her work is held in several private and public collections, including the Flemish Community Collection.

Hautman often creates interrelated series. Themes such as social outrage, existential questions and family or interpersonal relationships run like a connecting thread through her practice. She draws inspiration from art, music and literature, citing influences as diverse as Giotto, Oskar Schlemmer, Samuel Beckett and David Bowie.

Exhibition view 'Sigefride Bruna Hautman', M Leuven, 2025, photo: We Document Art for M Leuven

‘Moonproject 1’, Sigefride Bruna Hautman,1981, foto: Luc Wauman

‘Yvon’, Sigefride Bruna Hautman,1986, foto: InC

‘M/V’, Sigefride Bruna Hautman,1982, Collectie Walter van Beirendonck, foto: Luc Wauman

‘Portret 4 (Yvon)’, Sigefride Bruna Hautman, 1990, foto : Philippe De Gobert

8. ‘Portret 5 (Yvon)’, Sigefride Bruna Hautman, 1990, foto : Dirk Gysels — ‘Portret 5 (Yvon)’, Sigefride Bruna Hautman, 1990, foto : Dirk Gysels

This is the first survey exhibition of her rich oeuvre. To coincide, M Leuven is also producing a new book on her work.

From 25 January to 11 May, M HKA presents the archive exhibition 'Today’s Place'. Hautman was one of the artists who contributed to shaping this radical, multidisciplinary space in Antwerp. The presentation at M HKA highlights the dynamic exchange between artists such as Narcisse Tordoir, Jan Janssen, and Rudolf Verbesselt, as well as performers and designers like Walter Van Beirendonck, who came together in their quest for new forms of expression.

Publication

The House of Doors is the first monograph on the work of Sigefride Bruna Hautman, published by M en Lenz Press. The book offers a visual overview of the rich oeuvre that Hautman has been building since the 1980s. Hautman's sculptures, installations, collages and videos are brought together in large numbers for the first time and contextualised with the help of diverse archive material, much of which comes from her personal (photo) archive. The works have been brought together in such a way that patterns and links between them become visible. The whole thus sheds new light on the thematic layers of Hautman's oeuvre.

The publication (€32) will be available at Barbóék in M. Available from Friday 20 June.

Cover publicatie van 'The House of Doors' over het werk van Sigefride Bruna Hautman — © Lenz Press en M Leuven

During your visit

Ready to visit M? All the texts and audio that you can use during your visit can also be consulted digitally.

Read or listen

Writer Merel Bem speaks to Sigefride Bruna Hautman

Kunstenaar Sigefride Bruna Hautman in haar atelier in Antwerpen — © Marie Dreezen voor M Leuven

Day			Time slot
Monday:	11:00-18:00
Tuesday:	11:00-18:00
Wednesday:	Closed
Thursday:	11:00-22:00
Friday:	11:00-18:00
Saturday:	11:00-18:00
Sunday:	11:00-18:00

Day			Time slot
Monday:	10:00-16:30
Tuesday:	10:00-16:30
Wednesday:	10:00-16:30
Thursday:	10:00-16:30
Friday:	10:00-16:30
Saturday:	10:00-16:30
Sunday:	11:00-16:30