Portfolio : 5 : Curriculum

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CURRICULUM PHILIPPE VANDENBERG

Curriculum Philippe Vandenberg Artist, painter, writer. Lived and worked in Belgium °1952 - †2009

ESTATE PHILIPPE VANDENBERG

updated 29.12.2010

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BIOGRAPHY Niels Van Tomme 2010 Philippe Vandenberg ( Ghent, 1952 – Brussels, 2009 ) was a foremost Belgian painter whose oeuvre presented a series of radical stylistic and thematic shifts, reflecting both a personal trajectory and responses to varying socio-cultural changes. He cultivated an explicitly nomadic philosophy, establishing an image of the artist as a restless drifter defined by the most sweeping existential choices. For Vandenberg, each new image demanded the destruction of the previous one, the ultimate consequence of his self-declared “kamikaze” attitude, an approach that explains the many breaks in his oeuvre as well as important recurrent themes of mobility and movement. Central to his vision was the need to turn matter into spirit and paint into light, to transform personal anecdotes into a painterly reality. This notion was exemplified by the artist’s gradual process of interiorization, the conscious abandoning of virtuosity and material ballast in favor of sobriety and fragility.

Thematically, Philippe Vandenberg combined a highly personal mythology and subject matter with a heightened sensibility for urgent societal themes, employing a number of recurring visual motifs throughout his career.

After a brief academic study in Literature and History of Art, Vandenberg graduated in 1976 with a degree in painting from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. Throughout the seventies, he dedicated himself successfully to the art of painting, producing figurative subjects of mostly female bodies in a hyper realistic style influenced by a myriad of painterly and literary sources. His work initially informed by painters such as Hieronymus Bosch and Gustave Van de Woestijne, he discovered abstract expressionism on an influential trip to New York City in 1978. The works of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Franz Kline in particular made him reflect differently on the use of space in painting. In 1979, he encountered the works of Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the beginning of a longstanding dialogue with the Dutch master’s oeuvre. During a 1980 trip to the Prado in Madrid, Vandenberg found further affinity with the works of Velázquez, El Greco and Goya. After each artistic meeting, he adapted a brilliant visual style informed by these encounters, as a way to measure his work against the masters of painting. The cycle Studie voor een Kruisiging ( Study for a Crucifixion ), 1981, forms the culmination of this formative period. These works were selected for the prestigious Prix de la Jeune Peinture Belge and exhibited at the Palais des Beaux Art in Brussels. They are proof of Vandenberg’s undeniable mastery of the medium, a virtuosity which the artist deliberately moved away from.

From the 1980s onwards, Philippe Vandenberg’s work was increasingly defined by deconstruction — a radical break with his earlier classically figurative period. In the series of gray and black diptychs Paren ( Pairs ), Schervenschilderijen ( Splinter Paintings ) and Kruisigingen ( Crucifixions ), 1980-81, he discarded all of the figurative elements of his earlier paintings, only to be followed by a new kind of violent figuration in series such as Gevechten ( Fights ), Offers ( Sacrifices ) and Onthoofdingen ( Decapitations ), 1983-85. During this time Vandenberg temporarily moved to Paris and met Belgian novelist and poet Hugo Claus, which resulted in the collaborative artist book Gezegden ( Sayings ), 1986, the first of many dialogues with outstanding literary figures. In 1986 Philippe Vandenberg exhibited for the first time at Denise Cadé Gallery in New York. Following his entry into the U.S. art world, the Guggenheim Museum purchased one of his paintings, signaling a period of artistic prosperity defined by large, expressive and colorful abstract paintings from which violent themes

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have almost disappeared. During this period, Philippe Vandenberg was hailed as one of Belgium’s most successful contemporary artists with exhibitions in Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, the US and Japan.

Marked by the impact of significant global events, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the oppression of the student uprising on the Tiananmen Square, 1989 formed a turning point in Vandenberg’s oeuvre as political themes started to play a prominent role in his work. The artist adopted an utmost critical position, which resulted in a highly confrontational metaphorical language marked by striking visual motifs, such as the swastika and the dollar sign, symbolizing both omnipresent materialism and ideological impasse. Vandenberg painted a laughing Yasser Arafat, a provocative representation of the Palestinian politician — Arafat as embodiment of the ultimate resistance of the einzelgänger. Given its uncompromising subject matter, however, this series of works received at the time fierce critiques, something that haunted the artist for the rest of his career. Processes of radical intensification — impulsive artistic shifts brought about by intensified intellectual inquiries — increasingly characterized his work. During this time, Vandenberg also conceptualized his first book of drawings, a new form of diary-like expression that will prove a more direct, and over the years increasingly important, medium for the artist.

During a subsequent period ( 1990-94 ), Vandenberg mainly returned to themes of personal suffering, painting pietas and crucifixions. He immersed himself deeply in biblical narratives, notably the Book of Job and the Apocalypse of John, mixing scriptural visual motifs with references to the Western literary and visual tradition. This resulted in Job XIII, 12, a major solo-exhibition at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst ( Museum of Contemporary Art, now S.M.A.K, 1995 ) in Ghent. 1995 also constituted a symbolic “point de zero” for Philippe Vandenberg, marking a new artistic beginning. Works such as Het Zevende Zegel ( The Seventh Seal ), 1994-95, consist of small panels sparsely painted in oil, watercolor, gouache and blood. Like his drawings, these paintings turn gradually into an ensemble of pieces. Language — more specifically the use of words — becomes central to the work, resulting in word-images, a visual kind of scripture, paintings now unambiguously representing the thing they reference. This period further signifies a steady process of interiorization, marked by the artist’s removal from painterly matter through the use of aquarelle and blood, a remarkably lighter — less layered — way of applying paint to the surface, and an increased interest in the medium of writing.

Visually and thematically rich, the period from 1996 until 2003 resulted in extremely layered paintings. Mostly abstract backgrounds form the foundation for harsh figurative depictions, in which words and sentences are fully integrated as pictorial elements. The work of this period is, among other influences, inspired by the Flemish Primitives, consisting of brutal depictions of human cruelty. Centering on philosophical notions of nomadism and mobility, the road becomes an important recurrent visual motif. At this time, Vandenberg frequently visited Marseille, both the birth town of Antonin Artaud and place of death of Rimbaud, and these trips resulted in a series of diary-like notebooks consisting of drawings, aquarelles and notes. In 1999, Philippe Vandenberg was invited for a major solo-exhibition at the MuHKA, Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen ( Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp ). Philippe Vandenberg: Oeuvre 1995-1999 presented an extensive overview of works made during this period, a timely celebration of the artist’s unique position in the world of contemporary art. After this exhibition, Vandenberg continued working in this style, although the subject matter of the paintings becomes more and more personal, ranging from a series of self-portraits to portraits of German left-wing militant Ulrike Meinhof and harsh depictions of the suicide of fellow-artist and friend Marc Maet.

From 2003 onwards, text and image become intimately entwined, resulting in a number of innovative exhibition and book projects with drawings and texts, such as Pilgrim’s throat, 2003, and Exile de peintre, 2004. Along with his complex approach to painting, Vandenberg continued to explore the formal and aesthetic possibilities of drawing — the multi-layered and rich works on paper constituting a major part of his oeuvre. He relentlessly dedicated himself to three major cycles of paintings. Following the visual motif of the road, he worked on a series of abstract geometric paintings ( 2003-04 ) consisting of dotted lines, squares and colorful swastikas, visual patterns suggesting movement, the negation of stagnation and the omnipresence of evil. A second cycle consists of yellow and orange monochromes on which the phrase L’Important c’est le kamikaze ( The importance is kamikaze ) frequently returns, signifying the artist’s recurrent preoccupation with destruction as a foremost creative act. Fragmented and diverse, at once alienating and familiar, Vandenberg’s renewed uncompromising attitude gained him critical acclaim. After his 2006 exhibition L’Important c’est le kamikaze, Oeuvre 2000-2006 at the Arthur Rimbaud Museum in Charleville-Mézières, there has been a renewed international interest in the work of Philippe Vandenberg, resulting in exhibitions in New York and the Museum voor Schone Kunsten ( Museum of Fine Arts ) in Ghent. His last cycle of paintings, Kill Them All, 2007-09, shows an insidious new direction with English-language words strongly dominating a return to figurative paintings.

Philippe Vandenberg passed away on June 29, 2009.

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Philippe Vandenberg 1952 – 2009 EVIL – EXIL – VILE Gerrit Vermeiren 2009 ( EN version, from <H>ART #54 of 16 july 2009 ) “There is, I think, little or no art about happiness. People don’t need it.”

That’s what Philippe Vandenberg left on record in his last interview with this periodical ( see <H>ART #34 of 27 March 2008 ). Art about happiness is indeed superfluous; happiness itself is a different story. Philippe Vandenberg was found dead in his studio Tuesday morning, June 30. Sometime during the night between Monday and Tuesday, the artist committed suicide.

There is something revolting about the way his death appeared in the media. Vandenberg had his greatest successes and darkest defeats at a time when the Belgian art world was still a dictatorship. To judge by the quotes in the newspapers, the telephone of Jan Hoet – the most important player during that period – must have been ringing off the walls that Tuesday. It’s worth asking whether anyone gave credence to his suggestion that it was after all only to be expected.

Jan Hoet is the man who made and broke Philippe Vandenberg. The man who made him because it was not difficult to recognize from the beginning that Vandenberg was an extraordinarily authentic artist, with an artistic practice as “serious as cancer,” a “natural born artist,” whose practice may well have been from another time but who also proved his relevance to the present in no uncertain terms. The man who broke him because at a certain moment Hoet literally saw “too much” of the artist’s work. Too much work in private collections, too many exhibitions with work by Vandenberg – even too many paintings in the artist’s own studio ( who else but the artist had any business there anyway? ). With regard to Vandenberg, an existentially driven artist, this was a highly inept observation.

Hoet himself recognized this fact and offered his mea culpa publicly ( excuses that were accepted by Vandenberg ), but it was already too late. The perception and appreciation of Vandenberg’s oeuvre had been poisoned through and through. Only in the last years of the artist’s life was it possible to see a Vandenberg exhibition without thinking of Jan Hoet. Though it may be true that, if Vandenberg himself could leave the affair behind, lesser mortals like myself should also be able to do so, still, it sticks in the gullet. Mr. Hoet, old man, my generation never at any time saw too much Vandenberg, so I’m not going to thank you.

For the rest, I’ve read the interviews and texts about an unhappy youth in which the Catholic Church played the role of sadistic dominatrix, and about the revival of painting sometime in the 1980s ( who still remembers that? ). Philippe Vandenberg was labeled a “neo-Expressionist” or “Neue Wilde.” Personally I never experienced it that way, although that could be because I’m largely familiar with his work from the later 1990s, and this filter colors my view of his earlier work. I’ve also noticed that his Belgian “fellow Wilden” quietly began to distance themselves from him the moment too much text appeared in his paintings, or from the moment that

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it was clear that he was beginning to work out a figurative, highly personal and very dark iconography in endless series of drawings – but maybe I’m wrong. What I can say is that I’ve never seen the work of another artist – let alone an -ism – that in any way resembles what Vandenberg was able to achieve in painting and drawing.

He was one of those very rare artists with whom quantity was very much a quality. The total engagement of his work, physically and above all mentally, is at once highly monumental and highly personal; it is a path that can only be tread by few, the vacuum of one’s own complexity.

The presence of Philippe Vandenberg in “the circuit” was not always clear or even very striking, but for me it was a kind of reassurance. Somewhere in a large studio in Ghent or Brussels a painter continued to work as if he was the last of his kind. He did this not merely for the sake of his “gut feeling” or out of pure emotion, as is often claimed of artists with Vandenberg’s prolific level of production. He was an intellectual, well read, someone whose love of painting was perhaps equaled by his love of books – to which the fabulous artist’s editions he regularly published also attest ( Daily Drawings of Good and Vile, Pelgrims keel, Exil de peintre… ). Vandenberg mounted a frontal attack on the gridlock between history, current events, Weltschmerz and personal tragedy with an oeuvre that teeters and grinds, ascends in love and hubris and fragments or smashes apart in grief.

At the same time, many works of art are also characterized by an almost frivolous gleam. Vandenberg could dance with paint. The fleeting pleasure of the labor of creation percolates through a great deal of his work.

Fortunately making art is also just working.

Vandenberg’s iconography is an existential mix of biographical elements, Catholic symbols, “Jesuitical” French, ancient mythology and a fundamental approach to color, paint, graphite, paper and canvas. Vandenberg’s parade of crowned heads, crucifixes, suicides, riders, prisoners, rapists and impaled figures in the company of aggressive dogs, walking buildings and dancing crows never descends into the grotesque. There is something in the artist’s drawing and painting style that prevents his work from being written off as fantasy or irrelevant exaggeration. I’ve never been in favor of spreading on thick the sublunary stalemate between war, love, sex and death, but in Vandenberg’s work this just never seemed like an obstacle. At the end he finally seemed able to build in a bit of distance by taking account of the weight of history and his own erudition, and by leaving an opening for that other party involved in painting: the viewer. His art is at once hermetic and communicative.

The last exhibition of his that I saw was Visite in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent ( from mid April until mid August last year ). There, Vandenberg realized a presentation of overwhelming humility. For him the project represented a return to the place where he first came into contact with art. Out of respect for the masters of yesteryear he didn’t make any changes to the hanging of the permanent collection; he only added his own work where the usual atmosphere of the museum would not be disturbed. Many works lay on the ground. I was impressed, because on that day, I witnessed art in the negative. Vandenberg viewed the collection as that which has been passed down, what has been left to us: works of art that have withstood the storms of history like proud three-masters. His work hung and lay along with them like those same ships after a fatal storm. Driftwood and ash, majestic in memory.

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Philippe Vandenberg : The removal of the skull is child’s play.

Wim van Mulders 1990 ( EN version, from catalogue ‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Forum Gallery, Oostende BE ) Viewing the recent pictures of Philippe Vandenberg, one is overcome by a disagreeable feeling. Gone are the elegant,steered painting-explosions in a seductive, bright coloration. Over the lyrical enthusiasm appears about all the stupidity and the baseness of a revolting people, typified by the artist in a simple, linear style of drawing.

Nothing seems more repulsive than these money-dragging, obtuse trepanators, perpetrators of violence by the use of hammers, Hitler-heads of the most detestable kind.

The spectator- apparently endures a corporal mortification in the theatricality of a dramatic story. With these pictures, one can imagine something terrible - the swastikas, Hitler- and Arafat heads, figures not embarrassed to copulate and kiss, a man and woman sitting in bed in their comical normality, a motorcyclist, a chicken, a ham, a sausage in a pan - but also something passionate and something absolutely extraordinary. These extramarital children are born after the fine and dynamic abstract paintings.

The anarchist imagination concretely takes form in fragmentised images, displaying through disintegration and visible baseness a world one has to struggle through. How is probably entirely unimportant. An infernal abundance of images with grotesque figures is shown, selling something inexistant without any scruples, i.e. kindness by which even the poorest of the poor are exploited, with the sole purpose of continual increase of possessions in gigantic industries, mountains of money and power. Everyone who sells something that does not exist, is accused and sentenced, but today one sells with impunity polished furniture as art in its holy beauty.

Organisers organise art-enterprises. Nothing new.

The world is over-organised. Nevertheless, needless to lose one’s faith in art. One does not have to abolish art on account of the dominating power of the art-police. But a directed world has engendared deformation, confusion and destruction. The directors ( conductors ) desire the artists to look alike so as to be easily identified and manipulated when crossed in the street. The oeuvre too has to fit the “Zeitgeist”. This is what bothers Philippe Vandenberg.

He sides with a generation that considers the making of art as “what others do not undertake”. An artist impresses and disorientates by placing himself outside the law. Romantic escapism, one could utter. But here, the senses are rather prickled to importune the viewer, extending the art-ceremonial to an unequalled bittersweet delight. An artist has to paint his ideas. These are not the ideas of his friends, his teachers, his managers, his collectors. The condition of ever having and wanting to breathe in freedom, necessarily bears significant monstrosities. Modern art - from Francis Picabia to Francis Bacon - demonstrates this.

To everyone, the consequences are evident, except to the person concerned. It is a radical breach in the representative world of Vandenberg to suggest a tie to a socio-political situation, thereby frightening his admirers, or startling their already cherished expectations. The expressive paintings of former times only radiate their ideal of pure art of painting in the background. The transferred, figurative shreds of images, bitterly tasting of hell, carry the conviction, that fleeing for something that happened for instance forty years ago, is not definitively possible.

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Regarding contents and style, one can draw parallels between these paintings and those from the beginning of the Eighties, featuring ecstatically gesticulating figures, executing a conjuring dance in vertically orientated panels. Later on, the figurative elements gain monumentality in head, dominating the informal scripture.

Also, erotic connotations were obvious then. One has to realise, when approaching the recent, polluted creations with astonishment, that Philippe Vandenberg defends an emotional point of view, containing socalled dangerous outbursts and spontaneous critical reflexes, well worth painting. One glance at the enormous amount of drawings from the past demonstrates that “draughtmanship” has always been the necessary foundation of the art of painting. Presently, the linear aspect appears emphatically in heavy, dripping clumps of paint.

Perhaps, an artist like Vandenberg may have been associated for too long with happy paintings. One merely projected sporadical doubts and innermost fears into this work. Nevertheless, dissonance and anachronisms persisted even in the white, lovable, almost Sunday pictures with their seductive skin. The painter is evidently conscious of being a virtuoso, and of the appreciation and appraisal of that virtuosity, but this drive did not prevent the insertion of months of stillness, in order to find new impulses, new starting points. The production in “series” in this industrious world is quite sufficient. The texture and structure of the informal work also demonstrate that the painting was gnawed by spots, splashes and running paint, disrupting the coherence of the emotional charge. A condition of utmost equality in composition, proposes infinite opportunities of projection. Everyone has a right to everything. By the insertion of interpretations of well-known and identifiable figures, a sadistic universe originates, featuring people and things that continually threaten each other.

‘Symbolical and material barriers are broken down - the swastika overflows the pictorial surface just like a batch of trivial utensils - and obsolete morals cannot possibly turn the tables. In this chaos, Philippe Vandenberg shows something of the complicated system of social hierarchy and the struggle of everybody against everybody. The battle never ends by equality of the antagonists and the unfolding of disapproved figures, for finally, “where is Hitler today?”. The principally undecided fight recalls the nightly struggle of Jacob and his double, unable to end. It seems as if the equality is the state of war ( at large ) and as if the unequality is hence introduced by common consent ( out of indifference, general debility and regression ).

By the burlesque, roguish character of these creatures, the artist evokes the image of the great beast, rising from the waters to restore order. It is also the image of the Moloch, the gruesome god, to whom peoples were wont to offer their scapegoats. Of this hybrid, unenjoyable world one could describe its disdain for everything “elevated”, for haughty are those who do not accept the fun-fair equality of the others. One does not see the senselessness of the uninspired struggle, not observing the other as an amusing equal. One continues to deny conformity and tries, paradoxically enough through the equalising violence, to distinguish oneself.

Nevertheless, the artist presently tries to remove the virulent sting from lust, as in the archetypical scene of the primitive, waggish trepanation. But people do not discard their “capacity of intelligence”, for the financialeconomical order - a wheelbarrow filled with dollarbills - has taken over the task of sacrality. Nevertheless, this economy remains as ambivalent as the sacral, because it conjures violence with violence.

As if exorcising the devil by the devil. The silting matter, the sombre, dirty colours, dark blue and bloody red, are an indication of the rivalry in insurmountable conflicts. Economy increasingly breaks down genuine barriers between people, amplifying and multiplying needs. A disaster, the consequences of which were exposed by the novelists of the nineteenth century, is being announced by the parodising standardisation of human relations. Stendhal and Flaubert recognised that the emptiness of the mental plain - how isolated stand the buffoons and the pitiful attributes in the painting - are causing the problems of the period. Fatal imitation of fellow-creature was the source of all unhappiness and misery to the ones concerned and to the others. When oppressed man bows to a contemporary god - Hitler and Co. - the loss of refreshing authenticity is inaugurated. The grieving consequence is a restriction of the freedom of action of individuals to pre-determinated

domains. To the individual this means an unacceptable curtailment of his or her freedom. The philosopher of cynical reason, Peter Sloterdijk, writes: “Carnival since long” does not mean “the world topsy-turvy” anymore, but signifies a flight into the safe world of sedation, from a chronically upside-down world full of daily absurdities. Of the “bohemia” one knows it has died ultimately since Hitler, and its branches in the subcultures are impregnated with the depressed mood of retreat rather than bold caprice. ( … ) This mutilation of bold impulses demonstrates society’s attainment of a phase of organised seriousness, walling up the playgrounds. But provocations are seldom exhausted. One tries again, time after time.

Under the monotony, a grim and sharpsighted consciousness itches, situated in the wake of the tradition of satire, uniting the freedom of art, carnival and criticism into a culture, that hits the consciousness of the opponent with its irony, its reversals and its gall. In this art of slanderous, thorny informality, a plea is held for a life “sans souci”, still standing a good chance to be stronger than the stifling power of remembrance and tradition. Where could the individual reality be better assured of its existence than in a disturbing satire; i.e. in the ironic-serious abolishment of imposed regulations.

Regulations that pass themselves off as law and code in the ( art )-game. These paintings closely approach the incarnation of the highly un-serious matter that life is for once. Philippe Vandenberg considers “cosmos” as something without human presence, for where man turns up, one had better speak about “chaos” and “comédie”. The cosmologist thinks he can view the whole. The revelling realist, being critical, also observes the diminutive; that which is broken to pieces.

In the eorlier paintings, one all too eagerly saw the elevated, the extatic, the serious vital violence. Now the artist tells of the frittered, the crooked, the bent, the miserable, also worthy of being respected and painted.

The theory of the successful work of art requires truth to resplend in harmony, beauty and originality.

Nevertheless, criticism also has the opportunity to uncover truth unexpectedly in pantomime. It often observes the best of “great insight” in the forces that can be made of it. Naturally, the keepers of ( art )-morals will turn into a tragedy the fact that the Hitler-cliche is still screaming itself hoarse with a hangdog face and still is dispersing swastikas between masters and slaves. Who does this unreglementary copulation really damage irrevocably?

Only the naive illusions of artistic dogmatism. The artist does not have to serve the law, the nagging dogmatism? One should be able to shed ordinary convention with arrogance. A suppleness and expansion of thinking, feeling and looking can be obtained by the overturning of unconditionally ethical regulations.

These paintings appear to muddle up military, religious and sexual cynicism in a closely hammered and quickwitted wouldbe technique. Every painting contains enacted and created ideas, functioning as malevolent and demythifying meditations, being offensive and reflective, to the point and true. The function of waste disposal in the rundown Western ideologies transpires. Worldviews and totalisations are denounced as dangerous delusions. As different domains cross sharply - history, art expressionism, reality, myth, actuality - every moralising effect is annihilated. Philippe Vandenberg does not ask to yield to the seductions of some “other, holy cause”. lt is a way of saying no systematically as soon as a wordly meaning occurs, not recognising nonsense. The art and culture we once possessed, is perceived here as a whirling of propositions in chaotic shackles. Whatever demands too much of us, may be expressed likewise. ln this mixed, distontiating commentary, the painter leaves it to the viewer whether we are dealing with the hate-culture of this century, the inheritance of a criminal, the tale of misery of a militant nihilist, a symbolical destructiveness, a picaresque novel or with an execrated eye-witness account.

Only the “salauds” still have a pretext up their sleeve.

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Philippe Vandenberg : The removal of the skull is child’s play.

Laurent Busine 2008 ( FR version, from catalogue ‘Philippe Vandenberg: werken op papier’ (Philippe Vandenberg.

Work on paper), Galerie Gabriël Van De Weghe, Wortegem-Petegem BE ) Il n’y a pas, dans le monde, plus de labyrinthes tortueux que de chemins dérobés ou de sentiers rectilignes; ils sont les mêmes; partout, ils bifurquent! Ceux qui, comme moi, souffrent d’un manque d’orientation notoire savent de quoi je parle. Seuls les heureux élus du guide Michelin, qui ne connaissent pas les affres de la route qui s’échappe et qui tourne singulièrement dans le sens inverse de celui indiqué sur la carte, peuvent y croire; les autres, ceux qui sont nés hagards, les yeux grands ouverts dans la perplexité ambiante, se sont depuis longtemps accommodés de cette situation.

Philippe Vandenberg s’apparente au sauveur de ceux qui cherchent désespérément leur direction: je vois clairement de quoi il retourne dans ses dessins et ses peintures, dans ses gravures et ses croquis! Il n’est, comme vous et moi, pas perdu ou détourné ou inquiet; il regarde ardemment le spectacle du monde et dessine la terre, les paysages qui s’y déploient, les cartes qui la désignent et les hommes qui la parcourent avec le désir exprimé maintes fois de rendre compte de quoi le monde est fait, quand il est si varié et complexe.

Nous n’avons pas le mode d’emploi de l’univers et c’est bien là une chance insigne puisque nous cherchons, dès lors et heureusement, depuis la nuit des temps, à lui découvrir un sens, une raison, une rotation légitime quand tout – jusqu’au plus infime indice: une lumière changeante, une phrase lue, un passant qui s’active, un arbre portant des fruits, un lever de soleil… – peuvent y apporter quelques contradictoires significations!

Dans le monde et avec nos égaux, il est – certes – ardu de trouver sa voie, qui est loin parfois d’être droite ou courbe ou inversée; il est bien difficile – tout autant – de voir, un jour de pleine lumière, celui ou celle vers qui on va et qui éclaire pour nous le ciel.

Les cartes, les dessins et les indications apparemment labyrinthiques de Philippe Vandenberg semblent fragiles mais sont de bien utiles aides car la main d’un peintre ou d’un ami guide les pas de l’homme perdu dans la commune obscurité.

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Philippe Vandenberg in conversation with Bernard Dewulf Bernard Dewulf 2008 ( EN version, from catalogue ‘Visite’, MSK - Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent BE ) Painter and artist Philippe Vandenberg ( 1952 ) enters into a dialogue with the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts ( Museum voor Schone Kunsten ) in Ghent. A conversation about his intentions and motives, about his work, and about being an artist.

You’re showing your work in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent. This museum is very special to you. Why? It’s the place where I first encountered art. I had no other access to works of art. In the environment in which I grew up the word ‘art’ didn’t exist. I had been drawing intensely since I was six or seven, but I hadn’t the faintest idea that these drawings would be my future.

The first impressive images that I saw were those in church: the crucifixion, the stations of the cross, the madonna, the pieta. Now I’m becoming increasingly conscious of how these became basic symbols for me.

Moreover, the drawings I made as a child were not real children’s drawings, such as for Christmas or for Mother’s Day, but there were heavily-laden from the very start. And that has never changed.

When I was eleven or twelve I happened to find myself in this museum. It was the shock of my life. First, I suddenly realized that what I had been doing for years - drawing, sketching on bits of paper - was a human tradition. Then,I saw paintings in a museum for the first time, and it became clear to me that there was a world of difference between Bosch’s Christ Carrying the Cross and what I had seen before in church.

I had never painted, I didn’t even know there was such a thing as oil paint.The only reference to painting in our home was a grey reproduction of Rembrandt’s Night Watch at the coat rack behind our garage door.

I subsequently returned to the museum as often as I possibly could. To me it was a source of freshness, hope, future, delight. I went to school not far from the museum and I regularly skipped school to visit the museum. I was bewitched by certain paintings, including those by Van de Woestyne, Bosch and Permeke. Later in my life came the academy, other museums, and the studio, contacts with other artists, and so on.

All this explains why it is such a pleasure for me to be invited to do something with my work in this place. The opportunity to be present in this museum is indeed special to me. I’ve known it so intimately for so long.

What exactly have you done with your own and the museum ‘S history?

I didn’t want to set up a ‘confrontation’ with the museum’s collection, though I’m aware this is often done nowadays. I did want, however, to enter into a dialogue, to set out my work among what has been left from many centuries of painting. That is not to be taken lightly. As a matter of fact, it is far easier to place oneself among one’s contemporaries, since history plays no part in this. But if you place your work side by side with Bosch’s Christ Carrying the Cross, you have to consider it seriously. For me, this juxtaposition acquires a degree of magic, but, of course, I don’t know what Bosch thinks of it.

I’ve hardly touched the museum, I haven’t moved or removed any pieces. I’ve simply tried to devise a walk through the museum with my work as a kind of companion. The exhibition covers fifteen rooms, but not all of them have been packed with my work. In some rooms I’ve put only a single drawing of mine.

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Going through this process has been emotionally quite stimulating. Walking through the museum and working in it, I’ve grown increasingly aware of how its collection is what has survived a long history of painting. It commands respect.

How does a contemporary artist set up a dialogue with these historical works?

One can enter into this dialogue on different levels: formal, with respect to content, and philosophical.

Certain themes from my own work are strongly represented in the museum: the crucifixion, death, suffering, the human condition. Next to Bosch’s Christ Carrying the Cross I hang a work from my own Passion cycle.

Then there is the theme of sexuality, which brings me to Edgard Tytgat, whose work, I believe, hides a certain perversity under a rather lovely, playful character. At a certain moment sexuality was a major theme in my work. And so I tried to create a thematic link.

There is also the formal aspect. It goes without saying that over the last thirty odd years, from my midtwenties until today, my style has developed, from figurative to non-figurative, from non-figurative to nearly fundamental painting in which also the word plays a prominent part. Still, the same urgency has always been present, and throughout its variations, the style invariably remains a desperate attempt at expression within the same space.

As far as style is concerned, I’ve sought out Permeke, among others. He’s been very important to me. One mustn’t forget that Permeke was taboo in art for a long time. Like so many of my fellow-artists I vacillate between states of extraversion and introversion. And perhaps, I thought, some of my more extravert paintings may provide an answer to Permeke’s questions. Perhaps our languages find each other in this respect.

There may be a plethora of reasons for creating a connection with an artist from the past. The painting that, apart from Bosch’s Christ Carrying the Cross, fascinates me most in the museum, is Géricault’s Portrait of a Kleptomaniac. He painted a series of ten ‘studies’ of ‘monomaniacs’, as they were called in the psychiatry of the time. The Kleptomaniac is one of the five that have survived.

It is a strange painting: standing in front of it, you can never look it in the eyes. It is often said of portraits that their gaze follows you everywhere. However, this is not the case here. The man is looking nowhere, certainly not at us, the viewers,even though he appears to be aware of our presence. He wants no contact, and that’s what’s so fascinating. I’ve sought a dialogue with this work by placing my Ulrike Meinhof portraits in juxtaposition. I have a lot of respect for her as an icon of contemporary political struggle. I’ve made two large homages to her, as well as twelve preliminary studies. And I combine these studies with Géricault’s painting.

Doing so, I bring two figures together that do not function in the societal system. And in this way, I hope, I can communicate in the museum without snubbing it.

Your approach to the artist and his artistic calling is as deferential as it is serious.

You’re also acutely aware of history. As a living, contemporary artist you place yourself explicitly in the historical condition. What is, in your opinion, the place of the artist in our present time?

You can consider this from two points of view.

First, from the point of view of the artist himself. He has no choice, really. I myself feel this very strongly. I had two options. Either I could have become a dog trainer, indeed, I grew up in those circles and I was fascinated by them, but then I would have got stuck. Or I broke with my family, resisted it and became an artist. It was a battle that needed to be fought. Afterwards it proved to have been beneficiary: it was a first test.

As a child I was strongly thwarted by the social, familial, religious system. My first act of resistance was my first drawing. And that resistance has always remained. My hope is that with that resistance I can touch somebody. When that happens, I feel my resistance has been fruitful.

As far as the system is concerned, a clear answer is more difficult to give. Perhaps the artist is above all the creator of icons, a supply of symbols that may be of some use to some people. As far as I’m concerned, art forces people to accept mystery. However, we’ve been educated in the belief that everything should be solvable and clear. I think this is wrong, and much of our sorrow, many of our problems, and of our suicides, result from this belief.

Yet, I do feel that as an artist I must give something to society. I offer my work and what I want in return is, above all, communication. My wish and my hope is for people to look at my Work. Unless my work is viewed, it doesn’t exist.

That ‘third eye’ is very important in the creative process. I always try to involve it in my work.

How large should that eye be?

The moment the third eye comes into being, however modest it may be, is the start of a long road full of pitfalls. For that’s the moment when the ‘career’ starts. And the question rises how many of these ‘third eyes’ do you, as an artist, want there to be? What amount is enough? Just like anyone else, the artist is a bottomless pit. And the consequence is: the more we get, the more we want.

In this respect I’ve covered a varied road. Between repulsion and attraction. I have a love-hate relationship with the art world. But I’ve always been fortunate enough to have had people around me acting as that third eye, also in difficult times.

As to your question how large should that eye be: anybody qualifies in principle, but not in practice, actually. “( ... ) the question of whether for me painting is a grace or a calamity. And I believe that precisely this doubt is both the motivation and the subject, the subsoil, the foundation of what I am trying to express, to create.” ( From: Philippe Vandenberg, The cry of the finch, 2006 ) Talking about difficult times. In your texts on art and being an artist, the concept of ‘despair’ keeps returning.

I believe it’s very hard to be a thinking human being without regularly being faced with despair. Despair is part of thinking. I associate it with a lucid state of mind. When you’re acutely aware of the situation we’re in, it’s ridiculous to ignore despair.

You can cope with despair in two ways. Either you let yourself be destroyed by it. That has happened to some of my friends and acquaintances. Or you use despair as a kind of fuel. Despair feeds resistance. As it does in politics, or religion.

As much as political parties, religions have their origins in despair.

I know that despair is an unreliable companion, in the sense that it’s always looking for your weakest spot. But, as long as I’m able, in a manner of speaking, to humour it, and to express it, I can live with it.

Just look at art history in general: there is no happy art. Art is always about the blues and life’s cruelty. All great art is tragic, both Rembrandt in his facture and Goya or Velazquez in their themes.

As I see it, man has used his despair to create a sort of state of grace. And however tragic the themes may be, the creator always experiences some degree of joy as well. I’m pretty certain that when Bosch made his painting more cruel, it was with the tip of his tongue hanging out of his mouth. For me the state of grace consists in the awareness of seeing something that transcends us, whatever the horror we are shown. For me, the search for that state of grace is the driving force behind what I do.

This touches on the idea of the ‘lost paradise’, which is also present in our work.

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This theme occupied me very much twenty years ago. It is a universal theme that runs through art. I used to think that much of what we do is ultimately aimed at recovering that lost paradise. Now I’m not so certain any longer.

Anyway, we all lose the divine at some point of time. I don’t mean God, but rather, what’s called ‘l’élément divin’. And I think that an artist tries to retrieve that divine element. By creating his order. For me that order lies in a sheet of paper or a canvas.

This idea of order is crucial. I started drawing to escape from the oppression of daily life. Drawing gave me solace, it also provided me with a certain degree of security. It still does. As long as I’m in my studio, I feel safe, and bolstered to create order in the chaos around me.

I believe that anyone who is occupied creatively, is trying to create some order that differs from the existing one. That’s where problems may arise; it is an order that does not fit into the dominant system.

A painting without internal order disintegrates. That order may vary: e.g. from Mondrian to Pollock without order, no tension arises.

At the same time, and this is equally important, one has to break up that order continually and muster the courage to leap into ‘nothingness’. That is a permanent interplay of profit and loss.

Now that you mention ‘loss’, I’m reminded of your kamikaze metaphor. A sort of motto of yours is ‘L’Important c’est le kamikaze’ ...

The progress of the painting process consists in shedding and rejecting, and then restoring and rebuilding. It contains a strong aspect of destruction, which is not the same as repudiation. I’m not saying that the works I made five or more years ago are now irrelevant. But I’ve had to destroy them in my head in order to attain new things. Hence, perhaps with a certain degree of exaggeration, the image of the kamikazes, who were ready to sacrifice their life for their ideals.

Still, the image isn’t that far-fetched. Looking back at my life, I find that it has been entirely embodied in my paintings. What did not take place in my painting, or did not refer to it, was quite irrelevant. And the destruction that goes on in the studio, is sometimes hard to confine within its four walls.

Does that mean that anyone who repudiates your work also repudiates your existence?

When that happens I can only conclude that I cannot communicate with that individual. That sort of communication is relative. Sometimes it lasts just a couple of minutes, and I relapse into a desire to communicate.

But communication is essential in what I do, even though it can be very hard to achieve.

There are moments of great joy in that communication process. I can’t speak for those who look at my work, but in looking at work by other people I myself have known moments of intense joy. Perhaps the best example is Rembrandt. I go and see him regularly. I often say: Rembrandt is my mother. I can only hope that occasionally somebody feels such joy in the presence of my work.

That it makes some sense, that it can be of some help to people. That it may help them, for instance, to go on living. Although I’m the last person to put artists on a pedestal, I do often wonder how people manage to get going everyday. Where do they get the strength from?

“I love the niggers only, the niggers of painting. Those who go from accident to accident. The wandering, the illiterate, the haunted, the maimed, the one-eyed, the crippled, the crocodiles in the desert. The dazzled, the disenchanted. Those who, like trees, suffer from the rising sap but are unaware of their leaves falling.

Are we still innocent?” ( From: Philippe Vandenberg, Letter to the nigger, 2006 ) You’ve said that the artist can ‘help’People. What sort of help would that be?

I give a form to something that people cannot express explicitly themselves, something that is intangible by nature. The ‘bonus’ of a work or art eludes all rules and regulations, and is unsaleable. The painting is salable, but its magic isn’t. This magic has nothing to do with the mystical. I myself quite like the word ‘divine’, not because of some argument or other for the existence of God, but in the sense of something transcendental. A good work of art expresses something transcendental, something that uplifts us. When listening to music I often have the physical feeling of being lifted out of the mud of existence.

To me God is an endeavor as well. I see myself as someone who misses God. In my youth I was deeply religious. Religion was drilled into me. Later on I became aware that God mainly exists through his big absence. And now I regard him as definitively absent, rather than nonexistent. And I do miss him. That’s a weird feeling.

Looking back at Bosch, Memling and all the other marvelous paintings of the past ~ these paintings were directed towards God and thus perfect. At a later stage the artist left God behind and continued with mankind only. God did not come to the museum any longer. But when the divine presence and the fear of God left the image, experimentation started. Naturally, there are still religious artists, such as Francis Bacon, who painted the contemporary crucifixion par excellence.

Doesn’t someone who is creative ineluctably arrive at something divine, something transcendent?

I think it’s a human reflex to want to attribute what I call the accidental to a sort of superhuman power. I also think this is humbug, but I can understand it. It’s a search for security. Myself, I’D rather put my trust in the accidental. It also lightens my existence. But that doesn’t mean I don’t aspire to achieve order. On entering my studio some people might remark that it’s full of chaos.

To me, however, that is not the case: there is a clear order, down to the minutest details. But that order moves each day, it is never definitive. I re-arrange the space every day, depending on the need of the day. Unless I do this, I find myself in a kind of insecurity and I’m unable to work.

Also the work process contains a clear order. One movement leads to another, one colour to the next. There is a certain degree of direction, which allows you to perform certain interventions, and in combination with coincidence this leads to an unexpected image.

Now, that is my personal attitude. Magritte was a painter who entirely planned his paintings. I myself need the adventure, the leap into the unknown. At the same time everything has to remain under control.

That sounds quite neurotic.

Indeed, but who isn’t neurotic? How can you possibly survive in this world without being neurotic? Neurosis seems to me a form of cure in our system. Without neurosis we’re dead meat.

Can art cure us too?

That’s a tough question. Although art has become a hype and is propagated next to wine in the colour supplements, there are, to my mind, only a marginal number of people who are genuinely susceptible to art. The public expects a lot from a painting, but the painting is nothing, just a canvas with some paint on it. What it’s all about is: the viewer. It’s he who makes the painting into what can be made of it. How many people among those hordes of art tourists actually go and stand in front of a painting and wonder: what can this mean to me?

I’ve also known periods of success. But that is not necessarily when one is understood. Not at al1.Take Van Gogh, for instance.Van Gogh is an anti-artist, but who can still see this?

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Isn’t that misunderstanding of all times?

Of course it is. We survive in spite of the misunderstanding. And thanks to the triumph of the accident. To me, the accidental is essential. It helps to let go of what is established, acquired. This inevitably involves a lot of doubting and moaning. But I’m unable to do anything else. And should I not do it, it would be even much worse. Without my art, without its order, I’D be a vegetable.

There are several kinds of order. There is the daily, visible, material order. Art, however, is about a different kind of order. An order that’s concerned with questions: how do I situate myself in existence, how do I set myself free from the oppression of the existing order? I don’t believe that someone who arrives at work on time each morning and sits in front of the television each night has found an order for himself. He just adopts an existing, imposed order. Our apparent order often hides indolence. And that also engenders much despair.

“The painter’s environment is his canvas. There is nowhere else for him to live but in his painting. What can he do if the canvas denies itself to him, if it banishes him, while he has already been exiled into it by the systemic everyday? That is when the real becomes nothingness. A nothingness that is impossible to live with, impossible to die with.” ( From: Philippe Vandenberg, The cry of the finch, 2006 ) Despair is omnipresent.

Despair has many guises. Despair guides me to my studio, where another despair is waiting for me. That’s how it is.

This goes together with the idea that nothing is definitive. I reckon we’re not enough aware of this. We are fascinated and obsessed by the definitive. But it does not exist. In spite of what well-intentioned people and institutions - parents, school - have told us. We are nomads, we are drifters. We must learn to accept this. I believe in the nomadic, and in nomadic thinking.

The artist’s despair also lies in his inexorable attempt at creating the definitive image. But he never makes it, fortunately. And those who think that they’ve made it - what happens to them? Think, again, of Francis Bacon. At some moment he touched God’s toe and then he went on repeating himself. My belief is that the artist should be lucid enough to avoid this trap. But that is easier said than done. I just hope it doesn’t happen to me, or hasn’t happened to me yet.

I believe in continuing to attempt. Picasso said: “Je ne cherche pas, je trouve.” But as far as I’m concerned, it’s the other way round: I don’t find, I search.

That search goes together with exercising patience. That is another concept you strongly believe in.

The act of painting itself, of handling brushes, paint and the canvas, is but a small part of the whole process.

Applying some paint to the canvas is actually not very relevant as an act in itself. But it is ‘important as the synthesis of a thought process, of waiting long and trying hard. And we haven’t been taught to cope with waiting either. Waiting may be very painful, it may convey doubt, anxiety, loneliness. But unless you wait, the painting doesn’t come.

I believe in the idea of the soul. For me, the soul is in the patience. And soul, to me, means: inspiration.

Without patience, no inspiration.

You’re getting older in years. Are you occupied with the survival of your work?

That is not essential. It is not important enough for me to worry about. Who can tell that what is being made now will still be relevant in thirty years’ time?

Just look at the people who were all the rage in the sixties and seventies, what of their oeuvre has stood the test of time? The idea of a foundation or a museum for an artist makes me think of a mausoleum. The alternative is: movement. An oeuvre should travel about, continue to be viewed everywhere.

The best that may happen, it seems to me, is that your work remains surrounded by young people. If you can affect the young, you may brush a small bit of eternity. But how often does that happen? How often haven’t I noticed that as artists grow old their work is confined to their collectors’ stock. A sad fate indeed.

Brussels, February 2008

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SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2009 ’Hommage aan Philippe Vandenberg’ (Homage to Philippe Vandenberg), MSK (Museum of Fine Arts), Ghent (BE).

‘Hommage aan Philippe Vandenberg’ (Homage to Philippe Vandenberg), Mu.Zee (Museum of Modern Art), Ostend (BE).

‘The cursed image’, Envoy Gallery, New York (US).

2008 ‘Recent Works’, PocketRoom, Antwerp (BE).

‘Schwarze Milch der Frühe, Philippe Vandenberg / Bart Baele’ (Black Milk of Dawn, Philippe Vandenberg and Bart Baele), Th Gallery, Den Haag (NL).

‘Artist in Residence - Philippe Vandenberg. Visite’, (Exh. Cat.), MSK (Museum of Fine Arts), Ghent (BE).

‘Black a garden for St. John’s Millbrook’, (Book presentation), Croxhapox, Ghent (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. Schilderijen. Werken op papier’ (Philippe Vandenberg. Paintings. Works on paper), Galerie Zwart Huis, Knokke and Galerie Gabriël Van De Weghe, Wortegem (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg invites Marc Maet’, Galerie De Ziener, Asse (BE).

‘Le Point Zero’, Angel Orensanz Foundation, New York (US).

‘Cher Jean’, (Exh. Cat.), Galerie Salon d’Art, Brussels (BE).

2007 ‘Johan Tahon en Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie Gabriël Van de Weghe, Wortegem (BE).

‘The Early Years’, Benoot Gallery, Ostend (BE).

‘L’Important, c’est le Kamikaze’ (What counts is Kamikaze), (Book presentation), Passa Porta, Brussels (BE).

2006 ‘Philippe Vandenberg. L’Important c’est le Kamikaze. Oeuvre 2000-2006’ (Philippe Vandenberg. What counts is Kamikaze. Works 2000-2006), (Book), Musée Rimbaud, Charleville-Mézières (FR).

2004 ‘Philippe Vandenberg’, (Exh. Cat.), Galerie Gabriel Van de Weghe, Wortegem (BE).

2003 ‘Philippe Vandenberg. Daily Drawings of Good & Vile. 1997-2003’, Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. Pelgrims keel’ (Philippe Vandenberg. Pelgrim’s throat), (Book), Dr. Guislain Museum, Ghent (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. Exil de peintre’ (Painter’s Exile), (Special edition), (Film), Caermersklooster, Ghent (BE).

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2001 ‘Philippe Vandenberg, Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. IN MEMORIAM, ETC’, Galerie Baronian (Baronian Francey Gallery), Brussels (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. Peintures et Dessins’ (Philippe Vandenberg.

Paintings and Drawings), Galerie Athanor, Marseille (FR).

1999 ‘De Boodschapper. Philippe Vandenberg, Sylvain Cosijns (The Messenger. Philippe Vandenberg, Sylvain Cosijns), (Exh. Cat.), Croxhapox, Ghent (BE).

‘Onderbreek me niet, mama’ (Don’t interrupt me, mum), (Bookpresentation), MUHKA (Municipal Museum of Contempary Art), Antwerp (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. Oeuvre 1995 – 1999’ (Philippe Vandenberg. Works 1995-1999), (Exh. Cat.), MUHKA (Municipal Museum of Contempary Art), Antwerp (BE).

1998 ‘Schaamte en de tochten. Philippe Vandenberg’ (Shame and the Journeys.

Philippe Vandenberg), Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

‘La misère du jour’ (Misery of the day), (Bookpresentation), MSK (Museum of Fine Arts), Ghent (BE).

1997

‘Philippe Vandenberg-oeuvres 1989-1994. Les sentences de cendre.’ (Philippe Vandenberg. Works 1989-1994. The ash enunciations), Galerie Baronian (Baronian Francey Gallery), Brussels (BE).

1993 ‘Philippe Vandenberghe. Portretten’ (Philippe Vandenberg. Portraits), Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. De Kruisinging. Schilderijen 1982-1993’ (Philippe Vandenberg. The Crucifixion. Paintings 1982-1993), (Exh. Cat.), Campo Santo, Sint Amandsberg (BE).

1992 ‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

1991 ‘Interventions. Michel Thuns, Emile Van Clarck, Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie Pascal Polar, Brussels (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, (Exh. Cat.), Galerie Baronian (Baronian Francey Gallery), Brussels (BE).

1990 ‘Philippe Vandenberg. Recente werken’ (Philippe Vandenberg. Recent Works), (Exh. Cat.), Forum Gallery, Ostend (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. Gouaches, tekeningen en collages’ (Philippe Vandenberg.

Gouaches, drawings and collages), Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie Athanor, Marseille (FR).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. Oeuvres récentes. L’esprit est voyageur, l’âme est vagabonde’ (Phillipe Vandenberg. Recent Works. The mind is a traveller, the soul is a wanderer), Galerie Baronian (Baronian Francey Gallery), Brussels (BE).

1989

1996

‘Philippe Vandenberg. Peintures récentes’ (Philippe Vandenberg. Recent paintings), Galerie Baronian (Baronian Francey Gallery), Brussels (BE).

‘Paintings and drawings from 1983 to 1989’, Forum Contemporary Art, Ostend (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg.Tegen de dood van het licht (Philippe Vandenberg. Against the death of the light), (Exh. Cat.), Heilig-Grafinstituut, Turnhout (BE).

1995 ‘In de verborgenheid van het icoon. Philippe Vandenberg - Ton Slits’ (In the secrecy of the icon. Philippe Vandenberg - Ton Slits), De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL).

‘Philippe Vandenberg - Markus Oehlen ’, (Exh. Cat.) (Special edition), Dhondt-Dhaenens Museum, Deurle (BE).

‘Diptychon I - Philippe Vandenberg (Job XIII, 12) - Olav Chistopher Jenssen’, (Exh. Cat.), Museum of Contempary Art (S.M.AK.), Ghent (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. De stand der dingen (1993-1995)’ (Philippe Vandenberg.

The State of affairs), (Special edition), Galerie C. De Vos, Aalst (BE).

1994

1988 ‘Philippe Vandenberg. Recent paintings’, Denise Cadé Gallery - Art Propect Inc, New York (US).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. Gezegden’ (Sayings. Lithographs by Philippe Vandenberg - Poems by Hugo Claus), Galerie XXI, Antwerp (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, (Exh. Cat.), Veranneman,Foundation, Kruishoutem (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie Cintrik, Antwerp (BE).

1987 ‘Philippe Vandenberg. Tekeningen’ (Philippe Vandenberg. Drawings), De Lege Ruimte, Bruges (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. Peintures récentes’ (Philippe Vandenberg. Recent paintings), Galerie Baronian (Baronian Francey Gallery), Brussels (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie Cintrik, Antwerp (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

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‘Philippe Vandenberg. Schilderijen en tekeningen’ (Philippe Vandenberg.

Paintings and drawings), Galerie Brinkman, Amsterdam (NL).

‘Accent tekeningen’ (Drawings), Bellamy 19, Vlissingen(NL).

‘Made in Belgium’, With Richard Foncke Gallery, Casino, Knokke (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie Jan De Maere, Brussels (BE).

1976 ‘Philippe Vandenberg’, YD Gallery, Ghent (BE).

1986 ‘Gezegden’ (Sayings. Lithographs by Philippe Vandenberg - Poems by Hugo Claus) (Book presentation), Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie Cintrik, Antwerp (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. Recent paintings’, Denise Cadé Gallery - Art Propect Inc, New York (US).

‘Willem Cole - Philippe Vandenberg’, Richard Foncke Gallery, Gent (BE).

1985 ‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie Ado, Bonheiden (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg. Schilderijen en Tekeningen’ (Philippe Vandenberg.

Paintings and Drawings), Galerie Brinkman, Amsterdam (NL).

‘Made in Belgium’, With Richard Foncke Gallery, Musée Saint-Georges, Liège (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie L’A, Liège (BE).

1984 ‘Philippe Vandenberg. Presentation “Vision 2”‘, (Book presentation), Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberghe’, Galerij Cintrik, Antwerp (BE).

1983 ‘Philippe Vandenberg, recente schilderijen’ (Philippe Vandenberg, recent paintings), Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, William Wauters Gallery, Oosteeklo (BE).

1982

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerij Cintrik, Antwerp (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie De Witte Lente, Ghent (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie Elisabeth Franck, Knokke (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie William Wauters, Oosteeklo (BE).

1980 ‘Philippe Vandenberg’, YD Gallery, Ghent (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg’, Artemis Art Gallery, Ghent (BE).

1979

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GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2010 ‘Cabinet of Curiosities from Belgium for Europe’, (Exh. Cat.), European Council, Brussels (BE).

‘Hareng Saur: Ensor and contemporary art’, (Exh. Cat.), S.M.A.K. (Municipal Museum of Contempary Art) / MSK (Ghent Museum of Fine arts), Ghent (BE).

‘The Good, the Bad & the Ugly’, De Garage, Mechelen (BE).

‘L’Abstraction belge depuis 19545, dans la Collection Dexia’ (Abstract Art in Belgium since 1945, from the Dexia Collection), (Exh. Cat.), La Maison de la Culture de la Province de Namur, Namur (BE).

‘Tussen Taal en Beeld/Verzamelde verhalen #2’ (Between Language and Image / Collected narratives #2), (Exh. Cat.), various locations, Watou (BE).

‘Cobra & Co’, (Exh. Cat.), National Museum of Fine Art, Riga (LI).

2009 ’The Last Session’, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL).

‘Panorama Bélgica’ With Galerie Van De Weghe, Arte Santander XVIII Feria Internacional de Arte Contem, Santander (SP).

‘Zomersalon’, Galerie Van De Weghe, Antwerpen (BE).

‘Artificial Nature’, Verbeke Foundation, Kemzeke (BE).

‘Bad Moon Rising’, Boots Contemporary Space, St. Louis (US).

2008 ’Collection Thomas Neirynck, (Exh. Cat.), BAM (Museum of Fine Arts), Mons (BE).

‘Picture Parlor’, ISCP New York City, New York (US).

‘Bad Moon Rising’, Silverman Gallery, San Fransisco (US).

2007 ‘Leah Singer, Lee Ranaldo and Philippe Vandenberg’, Art Basel-Miami Art Fair, Miami Beach (US).

‘Waterverf’ (Watercolours), Roger Raveel Museum, Machelen-Zulte (BE).

‘Jesus drinkt een kopje thee met Budha’ (Jesus drinks a cup of tea with the Buddha), RC De Ruimte, Ijmuiden (NL).

‘Johan Tahon en Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie Gabriël Van De Weghe, Wortegem (BE).

‘Le Peintre maudit’ (The Doomed Painter), Cultural Centre De Werf, Geel (BE).

‘Ongekende Kracht. Een inclusieve grafiektentoonstelling’ (Unknown Force.

An inclusive drawings exhibition), Transfo Site, Zwevegem (BE).

2006 ’Waanzin is vrouwelijk’ (Luncay is female), (Exh. Cat.), Dr. Guislain Museum, Ghent (BE).

‘Voorbij goed en kwaad’ (Beyond Good and Evil), (Exh. Cat.), Dr. Guislain Museum, Ghent (BE). ’Basics #2. crox 145’, Croxhapox, Ghent (BE).

‘Versus III’, (Exh. Cat.), Kop van Noord, Oudenaarde (BE).

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2005

‘Pijn’ (Pain), (Exh. Cat.), Dr. Guislain Museum, Ghent (BE).

2004

‘Tussen Cobra en Abstractie. De verzameling Thomas Neirynck’ (Between Cobra and Abstraction.

The Thomas Neyrinck Collection), (Exh. Cat.), Bellevue Musea, Brussels (BE).

‘Tussen Cobra en Abstractie. De verzameling Thomas Neirynck’ (Between Cobra and Abstraction. The Thomas Neyrinck Collection), (Exh. Cat.), Paviljoen Borgendael (BE).

‘Speelhoven. Kern en Periferie’, (Exh. Cat.), vzw Speelhoven, Aarschot (BE).

‘Het Hart. Geschiedenis / Verhaal / Verbeelding’ (The Heart. History.

Narrative), (Exh. Cat.), Dr. Guislain Museum, Ghent (BE).

‘Dear ICC. Aspecten van de actuele kunst in België 1970-1985’ (Dear ICC.Aspects of present-day art in Belgium 1970-1985), MUHKA (Municipal Museum of Contempary Art), Antwerp (BE).

2003

‘DUBBEL-WOONST. Walter Swennen - Philippe Vandenberg - Carel Visser / Philip Huyghe - Under Construction’ (Semi-Detached. Walter Swennen - Philippe Vandenberg - Carel Visser / Philip Huyghe - Under Construction’), Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

‘Gelijk het leven is. Belgische en internationale kunst uit de collectie (Like Life. Belgian and internationl art from the collection), (Exh. Cat.), various locations, Ghent (BE).

‘Tekeningen van kinderen met naam’ (Drawings of children with a name), (Exh. Cat.), Vierkante Zaal, Sint-Niklaas (BE).

‘Basics’, Croxhapox, Ghent (BE).

‘Raveel, Recent & Boekbeeld’ (Raveel. Image and Poetry), Rogeer Raveel Museum, Machelen-Zulte (BE).

‘Un jardin secret. Collection Monique Dorsel et Emile Lanc’ (A secrtet garden. Monique Dorsel and Emile Lanc Collection), Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image imprimée de la Communauté française de Belgique, La Louvière (BE).

2002

‘Re Touche. 250 jaar schilders van de Koninklijke Academie van de Hogeschool Gent’ (Re Touche. 250 years of painters from the Royal Academy - University College Gent), (Exh. Cat.) , Kunsthal Sint-Pietersabdij, Ghent (BE).

‘Shoes Or No Shoes’, Caermersklooster, Ghent (BE).

‘Lieven Nollet - Atelier d’Artistes’ (Artists Residences), MUHKA (Municipal Museum of Contempary Art), Antwerp (BE).

‘Kunst tussen vezels’ (Art Between Fibers), different locations, Ghent (BE).

‘Cabinet de dessins. Oeuvres sur papier: fusain, acrylique, aquarelle, pastel, huile, gouache, encre, photographie’ (Drawings Rooms. Works on paper : fusain, acryclic, watercolour, pastel, oil, gouache, ink, photography), Galerie Athanor, Marseille (FR).

2000 ‘Het oorkussen van de melancholie’ (The pillow of melancholy), (Exh. Cat.), MSK ( Museum of Fine Arts), Ghent (BE).

‘20 jaar Watou. Storm Centres. 80 dichters en beeldende kunstenaars uit 15 kleinere landen en taalgebieden in confrontatie met elkaar en met de omgeving’ (20 years Watou. Storm Centres. 80 poets and artists from 15 smaller countries and language regions in confrontation with each other and ther surroundings), (Exh. Cat.), various locations, Watou (BE).

‘Epifanie. Actuele Kunst en Religie’ (Epiphany. Present-day Art and Religion), (Exh. Cat.), Parkabdij Heverlee, Heverlee (BE).

‘Etats d’Âme’ (State Of The Soul), Het Pand, Ghent (BE).

‘Tien jaar Croxhapox’ (10 years of Croxhapox), Croxhapox, Sint-Amandsberg (BE).

1999 ‘De opening - De verzameling’ (The Opening. The Collection), (Exh. Cat.), S.M.A.K. (Municipal Museum of Contempary Art), Ghent (BE).

‘Tuinieren na de oorlog (2). Deel II (Jaren ‘70, ‘80, ‘90)’ (Gardening after the war.

Part II 70s, 80s, 90s), (Exh. Cat.), Witte Zaal Sint-Lucas, Ghent (BE).

‘Dialogen met het waarneembare’ (Dialogues with the perceptible), De Vierkante Zaal, Sint-Niklaas (BE).

1998

‘Genio e Follia - over waanzin als bron van kunst’ (Genio e Follia – on luncay as a source of art), Museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo (NL).

‘Zinnebeeldig. 7 symbolen in cultureel erfgoed en hedendaagse kunst: een confrontatie’ (Symbolic. 7 symbols in cultural heritage andconremporary art : a confrontation), (Exh. Cat.), Caermersklooster, Ghent (BE).

‘Kunst op de Campus Universiteit Antwerpen’ (Art on Campus), Sint-Jorispand, Antwerp (BE).

‘MUHKA te gast in de Beyerd Breda. De keuze van Florent Bex uit de collectie van het Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen’ (A selection from the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, by Florent Bex), De Beyerd, Breda (NL).

‘Print as fiction. Installation Presentation Documentation’. Roger Vandaele Editie, s.l., Antwerp (BE).

Het lijden van de jonge Bellamy. Dood, graf en vooral zoentjes. Duizenden zoentjes! (Boudewijn Büch ‘83). Afscheid van Bellamy 19’ (The sorrow of young Bellamy. Death, tomb and above all kisses.

Thousands of kisses! Boudewijn Büch ‘83. Goodbye to Bellamy 19), Bellamy 19, Vlissingen (NL).

‘Gegroet Maurice’ (Greetings, Maurice), Galerij De Ziener, Asse (BE).

‘Opening’, McDonald Wyckaert, London (UK).

1997

2001 ‘De spiegel van het verlangen. Hedendaagse kunst uit Zuid-West-Vlaams privé-bezit’ (The mirror of desire.

Contemporary Art from private collections in South-West Flanders), (Exh. Cat.), Broelmuseum, Kortrijk (BE.)

‘Marines’, Galerie Albert Baronian (Baronian Francey Gallery), Brussels (BE).

‘Galerie Athanor 1997. Anna Boghiguian, Dominique Gauthier, Ingrid Hochschorner, Shigeru Kuriyama, Philippe Vandenberg’, Galerie Athanor, Marseille (FR).

‘1972 1997 Galerie Athanor. Exposition évolutive’ (Evolutive exhibition), Galerie Athanor, Marseille (FR).

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‘Schilderkunst. Hedendaags. Belgisch. Marc Angeli - Bart Baele - Michaël Borremans - Johan Boutelegier - Raf Buedts - Robert Clicque - Mario De Brabandere - Karel de Meester - Vincent De Roder - Dirk De Vos - Ignace De Vos - Karel Dierickx - Filip Francis - Herr Seele - Luc Hoekx - Thomas Huyghe - Kamagurka - Marc Maet - Paul Morez - Sjoerd Paridaen - Roger Raveel - Hans Segers - Thé Van Bergen - Philippe Vandenberg - Frank Van Den Berghe - Koen Vanderhaegen - Hans Van Heirseele - Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven - Dan Van Severen - Jürgen Vordeckers’ (Painting. Today. Belgian.), Croxhapox, Ghent (BE).

1996 ‘Ver na Vermeer. Hedendaagse schilders in Nederland en Vlaanderen (Long after Vermeer), (Exh. Cat.), De Beyerd, Breda (NL).

‘3 x 3 on paper. Three generations of Flemisch artists’, (Exh. Cat.), Yan-Huang Art Museum, Bejing (CH).

‘Kunstwerken verworven door de Vlaamse Gemeenschap in 1994-1995’ (Works of art acquired by the Flemish Community in 1994-1995), (Exh. Cat.), MUHKA (Museum of Contempary Art), Antwerp (BE).

‘101 Open Deuren. Kunstproject in woonbiotoop’ (101 Open Doors. Art project in a habitated environment), various locations, Ghent (BE).

‘Papier / Beeld & Basis’ (Paper / Image and Basis), De Werf, Aalst (BE).

1995 ‘Room with views. Michael Bach, Michel Frere, Axel Hutte, Callum Innes, JeanFrançois Octave, Hermann Pitz, Nicolas Rule, Yvan Salomone, Andreas Schön, Hideo Togawa, Koen Theys, Philippe Vandenberg’, Casino Knokke, Knokke (BE).

‘Swinging sixties / Sparkling nineties. La collection d’Art contemporain de la Banque Bruxelles Lambert présentée par le Crédit Européen Luxembourg, (Exh. Cat.), Casino Luxembourg, Luxenburg (LUX).

‘Emiel Veranneman. Art Furniture and Paintings and Sculpture by his Friends’, Marlborough, New-York (US).

‘Jan Cox, Paul Morez, The Van Bergen, Philippe Vandenberg’, Bogaerdenkapel, Municipal Academy of Fine Arts, Bruges (BE).

‘René Heyvaert, Dan Van Severen, Philippe Vandenberg’, Het Punt, Roeselare (BE). ‘(Kruis)wegen aan de VUB’ ((Cross) roads at the VUB), VUB (Free University of Brussels), Brussels (BE).

‘Vuurdoop voor Galerie (de ladder van) Pontormo’ (Baptism of fire for (de ladder van) Pontorna Gallery), (de ladder van) Pontormo, Ghent (BE).

‘Handteken’ (Signature), Cultureel Centrum Berchem, Berchem (BE).

1994 ‘Watou ‘94’. Kunstenaars rond de dichter Hugo Claus’ (Watou ‘94. Artists around the poet Hugo Claus), (Exh. Cat.), various locations, Watou (BE).

‘De Genese van het beeld. Fred Bervoets, Jan Cox, Eugène Leroy, Roger Raveel, Pjeroo Roobjee, The Van Bergen, Philippe Vandenberg, Godfried Vervisch, Maurice Wyckaert.’

(Genesis of the image), Sint-Adomaruskerk, Vinkem – Beauvoorde (BE).

‘Kunstwerken verworven door de Vlaamse Gemeenschap in 1992-1993’ (Works of art acquired by the Flemish Community in 1992-1993), MUHKA (Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art,) Antwerp (BE).

‘20 jaar Stichting Veranneman. 70 jaar Emiel Veranneman’ (70 years Veranneman Foundation), Veranneman Foundation, Kruishoutem (BE).

1993 ‘Confrontaties Confrontations. 111 hedendaagse kunstenaars uit België en Luxemburg’ (Confrontations.

11 contemporary artists from Belgium and Luxemburg), (Exh. Cat.), ‘t Elzenveld, Antwerp (BE).

‘Modernism in Painting. 10 jaar schilderkunst in Vlaanderen’ (Modernism in Painting. Ten years of painting in Flanders), Museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo (NL).

‘Lof van de Hand’ (In praise of the Hand), AZ-VUB, Jette (BE).

1992 ‘Stichting Gordon-Matta Clark. Een selectie (Gordon-Matta Clark Foundation.

A selection), (Exh. Cat.), De Warande, Turnhout (BE).

‘Découvertes’ with Galerie Baronian (Baronian Francey Gallery) (Discoveries), (Exh. Cat.), Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris (FR).

‘Modernism in Painting. Tien jaar schilderkunst in Vlaanderen’ (Modernism in Painting. Ten years of painting in Flanders), (Exh. Cat.), PMMK (Museum of Modern Art - Mu.Zee.Um), Ostend (BE).

‘Kunstwerken verworven door de Vlaamse Gemeenschap in 1990-1991’ (Works of art acquired by the Flemish Community), (Exh. Cat.), Museum van Deinze en de Leiestreek, Deinze, (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg - Marc Maet - Carlo Verbist - Fik Van Gestel - Jan Van Den Langenberg - Pieter Laurens Mol - Kris Fierens’, Galerie Cintrik, Antwerp (BE).

‘Kunst in Vlaanderen, Nu. Een keuze uit tien jaar aankopen van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap’ (Art in Flanders. Now. A selection from 10 years of acquisitions by the Flemish Communit), MUHKA (Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art), Antwerp (BE).

‘Nieuwe aanwinsten’ (New acquisitions), Veranneman Foundation, Kruishoutem (BE).

1991 ‘100 kunstwerken van Vlaamse kunstenaars. Kunst-Loterij’ (100 works by Flemish artists), (Exh. Cat.), Museum A. Blomme & de Posterie, Roeselare (BE).

‘Watou ‘91’, (Exh. Cat.), various locations, Watou (BE).

‘Gent rond ‘90’ (Ghent around 1990), Magnus Fine Arts, Ghent (BE).

‘Confrontation - Confrontatie 12. Art Actuel - Albert Baronian - Carine Campo - Cogeime - Christine Colmant - Xavier Hufkens’ (Confrontations. Contemporary Art), Casino Knokke, Knokke (BE).

‘Interventions. Painting - Photos – Installations’, Galerie Pascal Polar, Brussels (BE).

1990

‘Group show of Works on Paper. Paul Rotterdam, Gérard Titus-Carmel, Jean Dubuffet, Mark Tobey, Vieira da Silva, Guillermo Roux, Hans Reichel, Fred Deux, John Bennett, Wakako, Bertrand Dorny, Philippe Vandenberg, Christian Jaccard’, Denise Cadé Gallery - Art Propect Inc, New-York (US).

‘Portrait d’une collection d’Art contemporain. Collection Stéphane et Georges Uhoda (Portrait of a collection of contemporary art. Stéphane et Georges Uhoda collection), (Exh. Cat.), Palais des Beaux Arts (Museum of Fine Arts), Charleroi (BE).

‘You’re right to laugh. Dirk Devos - Georg Herold - René Heyvaert - General Idea - Martin Honert - Kurt Ryslavy Wolfgang Staehle - Philippe Vandenberg - Carel Visser - Willy Van Sompel’, Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

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‘1975 - 1990. Viering 15 jaar Gallery’ (Celebration 1975-1990), Gallery De Gryse, Tielt (BE).

1989

‘The Collection of Crédit Communal. Belgian Art - 19th-20th century’ (Gemeentekrediet Collection, Belgian Art 19th-20th century), (Exh. Cat.), Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR), Brussels (BE).

‘Elementen. Werk van jonge Belgische kunstenaars (Elements. Work by young Belgian artists), (Exh. Cat.), De Warande, Turnhout (BE).

‘Zomer 1989’ (Summer 1989), Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

‘Dialogues 2’, Veranneman Foundation, Kruishoutem (BE).

‘De verzameling van het Gemeentekrediet. La collection du Crédit Communal. The Collection of Crédit Communal.

Die Sammlung des Gemeindekredits. Belgische Kunst - 19de en 20ste eeuw/ Art belge - XIXe - XXe siècle/Belgian Art - 19th -20th century/Belgische Kunst - 19.-20. Jahrhundert’, Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR), Brussels (BE).

‘Philippe Vandenberg, Marc Maet, Leo Copers, Philippe Tonnard’, De Gryse Gallery, Tielt (BE).

1988

‘Op uitnodiging van Thé Van Bergen’ (Invited by Thé Van Bergen), Hessenhuis, Antwerpen (BE).

‘Young Belgian Talent’, Denise Cadé Gallery - Art Propect Inc, New York (US).

‘Young Talent: Six Flemish Artists. Dirk De Bruycker, Walter Swennen, Philippe Tonnard, Narcisse Tordoir, Hans Vandekerckhove, Philippe Vandenberg’ ‘Biënnale van de kritiek 1984’ (Biennial of Criticsm), (Exh. Cat.), ICC (International Cultural Centre), Antwerp (BE) , The Art Society of the International Monetary Fund, Washington (US).

‘Nove disegnatori fiaminghi contemporanea’ (New Flemish contemporary artists), (Exh. Cat.), Palazzo de Bologna, Bologna (IT).

‘Dialoog tussen oude en moderne kunst’ (Dialogue between ancient and modern art), Veranneman Foundation, Kruishoutem (B).

‘Initiatief 86’, Municipal Museum of ContemporaryArt (S.M.A.K.), Ghent (BE).

‘12 1/2 jaar’, Brinkman Gallery, Amsterdam (NL).

‘16th international art exhibition (Tokyo Biennal ‘86)’, (Exh. Cat.), Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo (JP).

‘Galerie L’A. Rétrospective Janvier 1979 - Janvier 1986. 50 Expositions’ (Retrospective January 1979 January 1986), MAMAC (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art), Liège (BE).

‘Collectie & Collecties ‘ (Collection and Collections), (Exh. Cat.), Municipal Museum of Contemporay Art (S.M.A.K.), Ghent (BE).

‘Galerie Albert Baronian at ICC’, ICC - International Cultural Centre, Antwerp (BE).

‘Van Marisal tot Vlerick 1751 tot 1988. Vijf meesters vijf toekomstige meesters. Oudstudenten in confrontatie met studenten’ (From Marisal to Vlericj, 1751 to 1988. Five masters five future master? Alumni in confrontation with students), Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Ghent (BE).

‘Uit de verzameling van Stichting Veranneman’ (From the collection of the Veranneman Foundation), De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL).

‘Kunstwerken verworven door de Vlaamse Gemeenschap in 1986-1987’ (Works of art acquired by the Flemish Community), Cultural Centre, Genk (BE).

1987

‘Kunst-Zicht. Aangezicht tot Aangezicht’ (Art View. Face to Face), Ghent University, Ghent (BE).

‘Fifty anniversary of collecting: an anniversary selection’, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (US).

‘Deconstruction’, (Exh. Cat.), Hallen van Schaarbeek, Brussels (BE).

‘Eighty, les peintres d’Europe’ (Eighty Painters of Europe), (Exh. Cat.), Strassbourg (FR).

‘La petite Parade’ (The little Parade), (Exh. Cat.), Sint-Vincentiuscollege, Eeklo (BE).

‘Zes maal schilderen. Klaus Kröger, Wolfga Finck, Gilbert Swimberghe, Philippe Vandenberg, Maria Plug, Thomas Rajlich’, (Six times Painting), Former Scheldesmederij, Vlissingen (NL).

‘Richard Foncke Gallery te gast met: Willem Cole, Leo Copers, Dirk De Vos, Franklin Engeln, Philippe Vandenberg, Philip Van Isacker, Dan Van Severen’ (Richard Foncke Gallery invites), (Exh. Cat,), ICC- International Cultural Centre, Antwerp (BE).

‘Summer’, Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE).

‘Podium 87’, Campo Gallery, Antwerp (BE).

‘Marc Maet, Thé Van Bergen, Pieter Laurens Mol, Ingrid Castelein, Philippe Vandenberg, Kris Fierens, Fik Van Gestel, Paul Morez, Gunter Damish’, Galerie Cintrik, Antwerp (BE).

1986

1985 ‘Negen hedendaagse tekenaars uit Vlaanderen’ (Nine contemporary graphic artists from Flanders), (Exh. Cat.)., ICC International Cultural Centre, Antwerp (BE).

‘Kunst als spiegel van de maatschappij. Kunst als spiegel van de Kunst’ (Art as a mirror of society. Art as a mirror of Art), (Exh. Cat.), Municipal Museum Oud Hospitaal, Aalst (BE).

‘Kunstwerk. Elf bedrijven te gast bij de jubilerende Peter Stuyvesant Stichting (Art work. Eleven entreprises invited by the celebrating Peter Stuyvesant Foundation), (Exh. Cat. ), (Cd), Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, Amsterdam (NL).

‘Europe et Toiles ‘85’ (Europe and Canvases), Mercedez-Benz, Paris (FR).

‘Confrontation Confrontatie 85. Tendances actuelles de l’Art en Belgique. peintures, sculptures, gravures, lithos’ (Confrontation 85. Present-day trends in Belgizan art: painting, sculpture, etching, lithographs, (Exh. Cat.), Town Hall, Brussels (BE).

‘Dialoog (Verleden - Heden). Oude Kunst Moderne Kunst’ (Dialogue Past Present – Ancient Art Modern Art), Veranneman Foundation, Kruishoutem (BE).

‘Kunst 80. Selectie door de Vlaamse Commissie voor beeldende kunst samenwerking met Dienst beeldende kunst en musea, ministerie van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap’ (Art 80. Selection by the Flemish Commision for the Visual Arts), De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL).

‘De Zondag / Aktuele Kunst. Marc Maet, Paul Morez, Philippe Vandenberg’ (Sunday./ Contemporary Art.), Koninklijke Baan 44, Koksijde (BE).

1984 ‘Biënnale van de kritiek 1984’ (Biennial of Criticsm), (Exh. Cat.), ICC (International Cultural Centre), Antwerp (BE).

‘Galerie Cintrik te gast’ (Guest), (Exh. Cat.), Provincial Museum, Hasselt (BE).

‘Kunst ‘80’ (Art 80), (Exh. Cat.), Provincial Museum, Hasselt (BE).

‘Vincent ‘84’, De Zwarte Panter Gallery, Antwerp (BE).

‘Artweek’, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL).

1983

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‘Picturaal 1. Recente schilderkunst in Vlaanderen’ (Recent painting in Flanders),

‘Vijftien schilders uit België’ (Fifteen painters from Belgium), (Exh. Cat.), Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag (NL).

‘Approches Picturales - Picturale benadering’ (Pictoral approach), (Exh. Cat.), Centre of Fine Arts (BOZAR), Brussels (BE).

‘7x Aktuele Kunst. Joris Ghekiere, Sigefride Hautman, Freek Hulstaert, Marc Maet, Piet Moerman, Siegfried Van Malderen, Philippe Vandenberg’ (7 X Contemporary Art), (Exh. Cat.), Gele Zaal, Ghent (BE).

‘Schilderen ‘83’ (Painting 83), (Exh. Cat.), Lakenhalle, Ieper (BE).

‘Peinture-peinture. 7 Vlaamse schilders (Painting. 7 Flemish painters), (Exh. Cat.), De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam (NL). ’15 Belgische schilders’ (15 Belgian Painters), Galerie Nouvelles Images, ‘s Gravenhage (NL).

‘Zonder Titel. 8 schilders’ (Untitled. 8 Painters), Cultural Centre Strombeek-Bever, Grimbergen (BE).

‘Aktuele Kunst in België. 13 young artists. Luc Brusselmans - Danny Deprez - Eric De Smet - Robert Clicque - Lut Lenoir - Marc Maet - Vanche - Frank Van Den Berghe - Jan Vanden Berghe - Philippe Vandenbeg - Philip Van Isacker - Ludo Verbeke - Eric Verhal’ (Contemporary Art in Belgium. 13 young artists), Art Centre Carlos Demeester, Roeselare (BE).

‘Recente schilderkunst een selectie van het Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst van Oostende’ (Recent paintings A selection from the Provincial Museum of Modern Art in Ostend), ICC (International Cultural Centre), Antwerp (BE).

(Exh. Cat.), ICC (International Cultural Centre), Antwerp (BE).

‘Promotion Emile Langui 1981’, Foundation Belge de la vocation, Brussels (BE).

‘Rachel Heller, Claudine Tousseau, Touhami, Toshi, Philippe Vandenberghe’, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (FR).

‘Jonge kunstenaars uit Gent’ (Young artists from Ghent), De Krabbedans, Eindhoven (NL).

‘Prix du dessin de la ville de Renaix’ (Drawing Prize of the city of Renaix), (Laureate), Renaix (BE).

1977 ‘Jongeren’ (Young artists), Galerij Katherine Bouckaert, Ghent (BE).

1976 ‘Aanwinsten van de staat 1974-1975’ (Acquisitions by the state 19801981), Centre of Fine Arts (BOZAR), Brussels (BE).

1975

‘Suppositoire à louer’ (Suppository for rent), YD Gallery, Ghent (BE).

1982

‘Rencontre ‘82; L’Art Belge depuis 1945 et l’U.H.A.P.’ (Encounter 82. Belgian art since 1945 and the U.H.A.P.), (Exh. Cat.), André Malraux Museum of Fine Arts, Le Havre (BE).

‘La Magie de l’Image / De Magie van het Beeld’ (The magic of the image), Centre of Fine Arts (BOZAR), Brussels (BE).

Schilderen ‘82 (Painting 82), Comedie, Roeselare (BE).

‘Verzameling Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst (Collection of the Provincial Museum of Modern Art), (Exh. Cat.), Westfalisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte ( Westphalian Museum for Art and Art History), Münster (DE).

‘Het picturaal Verlangen. Le désir pictural. (The Pictorial Desire), (Exh. Cat.), Galerie Isy Brachot, Brussels (BE).

‘Aanwinsten ’78-‘81’ (Acquisitions 78-81), Provincial Museum, Ieper (BE).

‘3 lijnen - 3 talenten. Fantastiek - Abstractie - Realisme. Tom Frantzen (sculptor), Alain Thorez & Philippe Vandenberg (painters)’ (3 lines 3 talents. Fantasy – Abstractiob - Realism), Galerie Delta, Brussels (BE).

‘Aanwinsten van de staat 1980-1981’ (Acquisitions by the state 1980-1981), Saint Peter’s Abbey, Ghent (BE).

‘Jonge kunstenaars uit het Gentse’ (Young artist from Ghent), Campo Santo, Sint Amandsberg (BE).

‘Schilderen 1982’ (Painting 1982), Comedie, Roeselare (BE).

‘Verzameling Stichting Gordon Matta Clarck’ (Collection Gordon Matta Foundation), Universiy of Antwerp, Antwerp (BE).

‘22 x 2 tekeningen’ (22x2 drawings), William Wauters Gallery, Oosteeklo (BE).

‘Openingstentoonstelling’ (Inaugural exhibition), Galerie Haezebroeck, Aalter (BE).

1981 ‘Perspectieven ’81. Prix de la Jeune Peinture Belge’ (Perspectives 81. Prize of young Belgian Painting), (Exh. Cat.), Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR), Brussels (BE).

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BIBLIOPHILE EDITIONS 2007 “DE SINT-JANSSUITE” Saint John Suite Series of 19 etchings Galerie Gabriël Van de Weghe, Wortegem (BE).

Ed.11 2003 “EXIL DE PEINTRE” Painter’s Exile Book with 53 etchings + suite 11 etchings and text by Philippe Vandenberg Ergo Press, Ghent (BE).

Ed.33 + 1 AP “PELGRIMS KEEL” Pelgrim’s throat Facsimile of 19 watercolors and 2 drawings (1998-2002) Literarte, Leuven (BE).

Ed.190 + 10 HC 1999 “ONDERBREEK ME NIET, MAMA” Don’t disturb me, mother Suite of 12 lithographs and text by Philippe Vandenberg Uitgeverij Jef Meert, Antwerp (BE).

1998 “LA MISÈRE DU JOUR” Misery of the day Book with text by Chris Yperman Uitgeverij Jef Meert, Antwerp (BE) Ed.55 1986 “DE GEZEGDEN” Sayings Map with 6 lithographs and 6 texts by Hugo Claus Richard Foncke Gallery, Ghent (BE) Ed.12

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TEXTS BY THE ARTIST

2009 ‘Tuons le chien aujourd’hui’ (Kill the Dog Today) 2008 ‘As I’m painting a garden for St John’s Millbrook’ Philippe Vandenberg. Black garden for St. John’s Millbrook, Croxhapox, Gent, 158 p.

2006 ‘L’Important c’est le kamikaze’ (What Counts is Kamikaze) Philippe Vandenberg. “L’important c’est le kamikaze”. Oeuvre 2000-2006, On Line & Musée Rimbaud, Gent, n.p.

2005 ‘Le triomphe de l’Accident’ (The triomph of the accident) Philippe Vandenberg. “L’important c’est le kamikaze”. Oeuvre 2000-2006, On Line & Musée Rimbaud, Gent, n.p.

2004 ‘Le chant du pinçon’ (The cry of the finch) Philippe Vandenberg. “L’important c’est le kamikaze”. Oeuvre 2000-2006, On Line & Musée Rimbaud, Gent, n.p.

‘Médicaments et créativité’ (Drugs and creativity) Lecture Philippe Vandenberg, 5 octobre 2004, Art en Marge, Brussels 2003 ‘Lettre au nègre’ (Letter to the Nigger) Philippe Vandenberg. “L’important c’est le kamikaze”. Oeuvre 2000-2006, On Line & Musée Rimbaud, Gent, n.p.

‘Pelgrimskeel’ (Pelgrimsthroat) Pelgrimskeel, Literarte, Leuven, n.p.

2002 Fra Angelico Pelgrimskeel, Literarte, Leuven, n.p.

1998 ‘Op weg in een kooi is een man, zijn handen rood’ (On his way in a cage is a man, his hands red)

Philippe Vandenberg. Oeuvre 1995-1999, MuHKA - Musuem van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen, 315 p.

1995 ‘De stand der dingen’ (The state of Things ) Philippe Vandenberg. Oeuvre 1995-1999, MuHKA - Musuem van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen, 315 p.

‘Alles van waarde is waardeloos’ (Everything that counst is useless) Lecture to the art students of the Royal Academie of Antwerp 30 maart 1995 ‘De 7 tochten naar het heilig graf’ (Seven journeys to a holy sepulchre) Philippe Vandenberg. Oeuvre 1995-1999, MuHKA - Musuem van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen, 315 p.

© 2010 ESTATE PHILIPPE VANDENBERG Design : Jan Mast