The Ghent city museum for contemporary art (Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, SMAK) and the museum for fine arts (Museum voor Schone Kunsten, MSK) are both situated in the Citadelpark, on the southern side of the city centre. Together they are currently showing 'Hareng Saur' meaning smoked herring or the art of Ensor 'Art Ensor'. Geddit? Probably not - it is a word play; they sound similar if you say them in French! "Hareng Saur" is also a reference to one of Ensor's works, which was on display, in which two skeletons fight over a smoked herring - which is typical of the kind of work Ensor produced: whimsical and macabre, featuring processions, skeletons and clowns. The concept behind the exhibition is that Ensor's works are interspersed with more recent works by artists who were inspired by Ensor. An intriguing idea, but not quite my cup of tea.
I was more impressed by the work of Romanian artist Adrian Ghenie, who satirises previous forms of art such as Dada and Surrealism. His 'Dada room' is a destroyed life sized replica of the first Dada exhibition that was held is a sitting room in Berlin in 1920, and "Duchamp's Funeral" depicts Duchamp laid out amongst examples of his work in a way that indicates that Ghenie believes this is now in the past. The rest of the museum for fine arts (Museum voor Schone Kunsten, MSK) is dedicated to the display of art from the 14th to the 20th centuries. I liked "Carrying the Cross" by Jheronymus Bosch (1510-ish), "Wedding Meal" by Peter Breughel the second (1616 or later), copied from his Dad), and the satirical "Village Lawyer" by the same Breughel in 1621. They have the usual collection of 17th century still lives, 18th century portraits and 19th century genre pieces, plus a small but intriguing collection of 20th century pieces including "Manet's balcony" by Rene Magritte, in which Manet's smart figures are replaced by shaped coffins, "The Idiot by the Ditch" by Frits van den Berghe, 1926, and "The Lutheran Church in Amsterdam" a sort of neo-fauvist work by Gustave de Smet, 1919. SMAK and MSK are both great museums worthy of a visit longer than the one I was able to make.
I was more impressed by the work of Romanian artist Adrian Ghenie, who satirises previous forms of art such as Dada and Surrealism. His 'Dada room' is a destroyed life sized replica of the first Dada exhibition that was held is a sitting room in Berlin in 1920, and "Duchamp's Funeral" depicts Duchamp laid out amongst examples of his work in a way that indicates that Ghenie believes this is now in the past. The rest of the museum for fine arts (Museum voor Schone Kunsten, MSK) is dedicated to the display of art from the 14th to the 20th centuries. I liked "Carrying the Cross" by Jheronymus Bosch (1510-ish), "Wedding Meal" by Peter Breughel the second (1616 or later), copied from his Dad), and the satirical "Village Lawyer" by the same Breughel in 1621. They have the usual collection of 17th century still lives, 18th century portraits and 19th century genre pieces, plus a small but intriguing collection of 20th century pieces including "Manet's balcony" by Rene Magritte, in which Manet's smart figures are replaced by shaped coffins, "The Idiot by the Ditch" by Frits van den Berghe, 1926, and "The Lutheran Church in Amsterdam" a sort of neo-fauvist work by Gustave de Smet, 1919. SMAK and MSK are both great museums worthy of a visit longer than the one I was able to make.
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