Exhibitions & Bonfire

Visiting Chris Killip, Dirk Braeckman, Léon Spilliaert & the preparations for the Scheveningen New Year's bonfire

[This newsletter might be too long for email, can be read best in browser or via Substack app]

This weekend I visited The Hague, to see some exhibitions I still had on my wishlist. First stop was a visit to the Kunstmuseum Den Haag for the duo exhibition of the Belgium artists Dirk Braeckman & Léon Spilliaert, set up as a dialogue.

Museumguide: ”In the works of Belgian artists Léon Spilliaert (Ostend, 1881-1946) and Dirk Braeckman (Eeklo, 1958), it always seems to be night. Although Spilliaert mostly worked with ink, pencil and chalk and Braeckman mainly photographs, they share their fascination for the dark hours. The much black, the grey, points of light that emphasise the dark, shades of darkness: with their nocturnal gaze, they process their immediate surroundings and impressions into ambiguous dream images that raise more questions than answers. Their works seem to emerge from the same emotional world: they show the mysterious, the intangible and the indefinable.”

This exhibition…