Berlinde de Bruyckere

de Angela Mengoni, Murat Alat, Gary Carrion-Murayari, Emmanuel Alloa

The Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere (born 1964) owes her fame in the contemporary art world in the very innovative way in which she approaches sculpture. This publication is the first monograph devoted to De Bruyckere. This book gives us a definitive and comprehensive look at the variety of her work over the past twenty years. The book includes the first sculptures of De Bruyckere from the 1990s, especially reflections on the human figure made of wax and wool, her later sculptures of horses who assured her international fame, as well as the fascinating installation she made recently for the Belgian Pavilion at the Biennale di Venezia (2013). The work of De Bruyckere, which are discussed here in more than two hundred beautiful illustrations, full of strange contradictions - they are both inviting and confusing, anatomical and abstract. This book is an invaluable source of information about an artist who works with her provocative and exerts a decisive impact on the contemporary art canon. The work contains two philosophical essays written by philosopher and theorist Emmanuel Alloa and art historian Angela Mengoni, while Gary Carrion-Murayari provides a sensitive reflection on the graphic work of the artist. Exhibition: SMAK, Ghent, Belgium (18.10.2014-08.02.2015) / Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, the Netherlands (28.02.-06.28.2015).