Arts & Museums
Antwerp has always been a city of art. Famous painters like Rubens and Van Dijck lived and worked here. The cathedral is an example of Gothic architecture at it’s best; the city hall does the same for the Renaissance. Today, Antwerp is the residence of many fashion designers, which will be celebrated between May and October with the event Mode 2001 Landed/Geland. I’ll tell you all about that later, but for this month I want to focus on what’s going on in Antwerp’s museums.
Temporary Exhibitions in April
De Boeddha in de Drakenpoort (The Buddha in the Dragon’s Gate)
Chinese Buddha-statues
Ethnographic museum – Suikerrui 19
Kaukasische Volkeren (Kaukasian Peoples)
About the life and culture of the people from the Kaukasus and the Crimea; in cooperation with the Russian Ethnographic museum of sister city St. Petersburg.
Hessenhuis – Falconrui 53
Until June 24
Contemporary Artists
Willy De Sauter
Ria Pacquée, Berlinde De Bruykere, Jan Kempenaers
Lidwien Van De Ven
MUHKA – Leuvenstraat 32
Still/Life
Rockoxhuis – Keizerstraat 12
Kinderen op hun mooist (Children at their most beautiful)
Portraits of children painted in the Netherlands (which in that time included Belgium) in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Royal Museum of Fine Arts – Leopold de Waelplaats 1
Until April 22
Het zilveren lampetstel van Rubens (Rubens’ silver jug and wash-basin)
Silverware from Rubens’ time
Rubenshuis – Wapper 9-11
Until June 5
Links
Other Museums
Diamond Museum
Middelheim (open-air museum for sculpture; free entry)
Plantin-Moretus (museum about publishing techniques: that may sound dull, but it’s really very interesting)
Maritime Museum (despite its splendid location inside a castle, this one is dull IMHO)
Vleeshuis
Knack (click on Knack Cultuuragenda on your left)
Local Cultural Centres
Berchem
Deurne
Luchtbal/Hof ter Loo (rock concerts are often held at the latter)
Wilrijk
Sint-Andries (in the city centre)
Berendrecht-Zandvliet-Lillo
Webmuseums
Peter Paul Rubens
Antoon Van Dijck
Questions?
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