^{Image courtesy of MoMu}

Rik Wouters & The Private Utopia at MoMu

The theme of enchanting homeliness by painter Rik Wouters, as well as the intimate feeling of sanctity between him and his wife Nel, forms the premise of this exhibition which brings together art, fashion and design. This exhibition is a partnership between MoMu and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of painter Rik Wouters in 2016. The exhibition brings together work by Rik Wouters from the KMSKA collection and pieces by contemporary artists and fashion designers such as Dirk Van Saene, Dries Van Noten, Bruno Pieters, Christian Wijnants, Walter Van Beirendonck, Veronique Branquinho, Martin Margiela, Jan-Jan Van Essche, BLESS and Bernhard Willhelm.

^{Image courtesy of MoMu}

 Wouters was the only artist to combine Post-Impressionist painting techniques with simple domestic scenes. His expressive brush strokes and the unfinished style of his canvases give a dynamic to his work that, combined with the emphasis on lighting and colour, result in an enchanting and optimistic quality. In this exhibition, the contemporary movement in which people are again seeking domestic intimacy and contact with nature, the ‘slow’ movement and the renewed attention for traditional techniques, like ceramics, weaving and dyeing, are linked with the utopian philosophy from Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden. Published in 1854 Walden presented the non-industrial, natural way of life as an alternative to the overstimulation of consumer society.

^{Image courtesy of MoMu}

In painting, we see a similar change in Impressionism in the mid-nineteenth century, shifting from ‘bourgeois’ art to more of an internalization highlighting the beauty of the natural way of life with an emphasis on lighting. Various Belgian fashion designers -including Dirk Van Saene, Bruno Pieters, Christian Wijnants, Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Veronique Branquinho, Martin Margiela, Marina Yee, Jan-Jan Van Essche and Anne Kurris – give their individual interpretations to these thoughts: some by choosing specific fabrics and techniques, and others through their idiosyncratic position in fashion, in which they do not give praise to the hectic pace of the fashion world.

Fashion Museum Province of Antwerp – MoMu
From September 17, 2016 to February 26, 2017

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