Surrealist patron Edward James let Magritte stay rent free in his London home and paint.
During the German occupation of Belgium in World War II he stayed in Brussels. During 1947–48 he painted in a provocative and crude Fauve style. During this time, Magritte supported himself through making fake Picassos, Braques and Chiricos. Later he printed forged banknotes. At the end of 1948, he returned to the style and themes of his prewar surrealistic art.
His work was exhibited in the United States in New York in 1936. It was shown again at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1992.
Magritte died of pancreatic cancer in Brussels on 15 August 1967.
The Magritte Museum opened to the public on 30 May 2009 in Brussels. It is in the five-level neo-classical Hotel Altenloh. The museum shows about 200 original Magritte paintings, drawings and sculptures. The museum also includes Magritte’s experiments with photography from 1920 on and the short surrealist movies he made from 1956 on.
Luc Tuymans
Luc Tuymans (born 1958) is an artist who lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Tuymans is said to be one of the most influential painters working today.
Tuymans was born in Mortsel, Belgium. He began his studies at the Sint-Lukasinstituut in Brussels in 1976. He then studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre in Brussels, Belgium (1979–1980) and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium (1980–1982). He stopped painting in 1982 and began studying art history at the Vrije Universiteit, Brussels (1982–6). The Belgian government gave him the title of Commander, Order of Leopold in 2007. He is married to Venezuelan artist Carla Arocha.
Tuymans represented Belgium at the Venice Biennale in 2001. He has been the focus of several retrospectives at various international institutions, including the Műcsarnok Kunsthalle in Budapest, Hungary; Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany; the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Poland; the Tate Modern, London, England (2004); Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal; Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMCO), Geneva, Switzerland (both 2006); and, most recently (2011) the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium. The artist’s first U.S. retrospective opened in September 2009 at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, and travelled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
Work by the artist is in the public collections of various museums, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerp, Belgium; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg; Museum fuer Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; and the Tate Gallery, London.
In 2005, "Sculpture" (2000), part of Tuymans' "Mwana Kitoko: Beautiful White Man" series, was sold at Christie's New York, for $1,472,000.
Victor Horta
Victor, Baron Horta (6 January 1861 - 8 September 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer. John Julius Norwich said he was "undoubtedly the key European Art Nouveau architect." Horta is one of the most important names in Art Nouveau architecture. Some people say his Hôtel Tassel in Brussels was the first time the style was used on architecture.
In 1932 King Albert I of Belgium gave Horta the title of Baron for his services to architecture. Four of the buildings he designed are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Horta had a great interest in music since childhood. In 1873 he went to study musical theory at the Ghent Conservatory. He was removed for bad behaviour. He then joined the Department of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent instead. In 1878 Horta left for Paris. He found work with architect and designer Jules Debuysson in Montmartre. There he was inspired by the impressionist and pointillist artists, and also by the possibilities of working in iron and glass.
When Horta's father died in 1880, he returned to Belgium and moved to Brussels. He married his first wife. He studied architecture at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. In Brussels Horta made a friendship with Paul Hankar. He became an assistant for his professor Alphonse Balat, architect to Leopold II of Belgium. Together they designed the royal Greenhouses of Laeken, Horta's first work to use glass and iron.
In 1884 Horta won the first Prix Godecharle to be awarded for Architecture.
By 1885 Horta worked on his own. He was commissioned to design three houses. The same year he also joined the Central Society of Belgian Architecture. Over the next few years he was in a number of competitions for public work. He worked with sculptors (notably his friend Godefroid Devresse) on statuary and even tombs. He won a number of prizes. He thought the forms he made were highly practical and not artistic.
During this period, Horta joined the freemasons. This gave him many clients when he returned to designing houses and shops in 1893.
Horta was appointed Head of Graphic Design for Architecture at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1892. He became Professor of Architecture in 1893. He worked there until 1911.
Many of Horta's buildings were destroyed. However, several of Horta’s buildings are still standing in Brussels. Most notable are the "Magasins Waucquez", formerly a department store, now the Brussels Comic Book Museum and four of his private houses ("hôtels"), which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites:
Henry van de Velde
Henry Clemens Van de Velde (3 April 1863, Antwerp – 15 October 1957, Zürich) was a Belgian painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he is one of the main founders of Art Nouveau in Belgium. Van de Velde spent the most important part of his career in Germany.
Van de Velde studied painting in Antwerp, under Charles Verlat and in Paris under Carolus-Duran. As a young painter he was influenced by Paul Signac and Georges Seurat. He used a neo-impressionist style. In 1889 he became a member of the Brussels-based artist group "Les XX". During this period he made a lasting friendship with the painter Théo van Rysselberghe and the sculptor Constantin Meunier.
In 1892 he stopped painting. Instead he worked on the arts of decoration and interior design. His own house, "Bloemenwerf" in Ukkel, was his first try at architecture. He also made interiors and furniture for the art gallery "L'Art Nouveau" of Samuel Bing in Paris in 1895. This gave the movement its first name as Art Nouveau.
Around the turn of the century, he designed Villa Leuring in the Netherlands, and Villa Esche in Chemnitz, two works that show his Art Nouveau style in architecture. He also designed the interior of the Folkwang Museum in Hagen. In 1905 he was asked by the Grand Duke of Weimar to make the Grand-Ducal School of Arts and Crafts in Weimar.
Although a Belgian, Van de Velde would play an important role in the German Werkbund. This group was made to help improve and promote German design by making close relations between industry and designers. He went against Hermann Muthesius at the Werkbund meeting of 1914. Their debate marked the history of Modern Architecture. Van de Velde wanted individuality of artists while Hermann Muthesius wanted standardization.
During World War I, Van de Velde, as a foreign national, was made to leave Weimar. During this period, he mentored the great Belgian architect, Victor Bourgeois.
During World War I, he lived in Switzerland and in the Netherlands. He designed the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo. From 1926 to 1936, Van de Velde was professor at Ghent University.
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