Projects
Osaka Idols in the Brussels Limelight. The Belgian Reception of Kamigata-e and their late Acquisition by the Royal Museums of Art and History in a Western European Context KU Leuven
The principal objective of this project is a thorough investigation of the Belgian reception of kamigata-e and their relatively late acquisition by the Brussels Royal Museums of Art and History (henceforth RMAH).
It appears that during the fin de siècle kamigata-e were initially ignored by Belgian Japonisants, upstaged as they were by the prints produced in Edo. Despite the RMAH having laid the foundation of their Japanese prints ...
The Meiji prints in the collection of the Royal Museums for Art and History, Brussels. KU Leuven
Ukiyo-e 浮世絵, literally meaning or known under its English equivalent of ‘pictures of the floating world’, refers to the Japanese traditional genre of woodblock printing. Despite their contemporary exclusive character, Japanese woodblock prints were a popular commercial art that produced multicolored printed images in very large quantities at low cost to satisfy the growing middle-class clientele of Edo (present-day Tokyo). Integral to the ...
Towards the "Transnational" in Art History: Argentine Artists in Belgium and beyond, 1967-1981 Ghent University
The proposed project will investigate the phenomenon of transnationalism in the late 1960s and 1970s by focusing on the cultural exchange between Argentina and Belgium and the subsequent cross-border activities of Argentine artists in Europe. The specific focus lies on how these cross-border activities could be considered 'transnational' and how the 'transnational' is then adequately defined. Qualifying the notion of 'effect', which defines ...
Construction History, Above and Beyond. What History Can Do for Construction History Ghent University
Since 1985, Construction History is internationally recognized as a distinct field within history, situated on the interface between the history of engineering and the history of architecture. Antoine Picon, historian of architecture and technology, argued in 2006 that construction history “offers a unique opportunity to rethink the relations between technology and culture." This proposal starts from the observation that this opportunity has ...
Beyond the Canon: A Digital Art Historical Approach to the International Circuit of Belgian Modern Art Exhibitions in the First Half of the Twentieth Century. KU Leuven
When you look at the numerous Belgian modern art exhibitions that took place abroad and on international platforms such as International Expositions and World Fairs in the period between roughly 1910 and 1958, it is striking to see that Belgium in general was represented by artists who today receive little or no attention from scholars and art professionals. It concerns male and female artists whose work has shifted to the margins of art ...
When Art Turned Day-Glo, Marking the Impact of Daylight Fluorescent Materials in New York Art from the 60's and 70's KU Leuven
This dissertation investigates the role and visual effects of daylight fluorescent (DayGlo) paints in Frank Stella’s works of the sixties. In the first part of the dissertation, a theoretical framework is developed through a step-by-step extraction of the logic of the Modernist theories of Clement Greenberg, Frank Stella, and Michael Fried. This framework helps to position Stella’s intentions and decisions, starting from the Black Paintings, ...