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Koen van den Broek (born 1973) is a Belgian artist who lives in Antwerp ==Biography== Van den Broek was born in 1973 in Bree, Belgium. Starting from his training as an architect at the Catholic University of Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) (B), Koen van den Broek's decision to paint was an almost logical one. His preference for the work of Matisse, as well as his art-education at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) (B) and Sint-Joost in Breda (NL) root him deeply in the European painting-tradition. He has however, always put this in a perspective by a strong preoccupation with American conceptual and abstract art. Not only in theory but also by means of road trips made almost annually through the United States, which provide him with the necessary source material. At the Academy, Koen was tutored by Fred Bervoets, who taught him a certain discipline in his work, as well as the fact that everything in a painting needs to have its function. It struck him that Koen was able to say a lot with little means: “Koen paints so little and says so much. Koen paints the essence.” 〔De Morgen, 24 November 2007〕 In 2003 he participated in the SFMOMA- exhibition "Matisse and beyond: A century of modernism” thereby confirming his admiration for the artist whose work is perhaps the most essential influence on his. Above all it is the way in which Matisse, with the help of bold colours, can reduce an image to its essence, apart from any message or content, and still doesn’t get boring after all these years that command van den Broek’s deep respect. Van den Broek got acquainted with John Baldessari, one of the founders of conceptual art at the West coast, when he went to Los Angeles, not long after his stay at the post-graduate program of the HISK (Higher Institute for Fine Arts) in Antwerp, in 2001. After a friendship of seven years they decided in 2008 to collaborate on a project that combined photographs by Baldessari with painted interventions by van den Broek. "I worked with photographs Baldessari made of film-stills of Hollywood-movies (…) Baldessari printed them on large format, three by four metres (…) John sent me images that are the opposite of my work: black and white, lots of interiors, while I work with colour and exteriors. (…) he sets up pitfalls for an artist, because I definitely didn’t want to do what he should do: it was a tricky process, but also a very intriguing one.” 〔Art, 2 October 2008〕 When he was asked by the Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp in 2008 to curate an exhibition with their collection, he combined it with work from Belgian private collections. He created connections between Minimalist and Post-expressionist American, Belgian and European artists, based on what was important to him as an artist. Next to this subjective approach a more objective story about the place of Belgian art in a broader, international context emerged. On the occasion of his solo-exhibitions at the Municipal Museum for Contemporary Art (Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, SMAK) in Ghent, "Crack", a comprehensive catalogue, was published, edited by Wouter Davidts, and with contributions by, among others John Welchman, Andrew Renton and Dirk Lauwaert. In this monography, as well as in the exhibition a broad overview was given of van den Broek's career until then, and this helped him to draw "…new conclusions from my older work and this gave me the energy to keep on developing my familiar motives of the urban landscape and how this can be translated in new ways onto the canvas."〔Dickie Anna, "A conversation with Koen van den Broek", Ocula, januari 2014〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Koen van den Broek」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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