The artwork world has been ready for the opening of The Royal Museum of Fantastic Arts in Antwerp for greater than a decade.
Now, eventually, the biggest museum in Flanders (recognized by its acronym as KMSKA) has flung open its doorways with a weekend competition celebrating seven centuries of artwork in a radically expanded setting.
It has been an extended gestation for KMSKA following conception of an formidable plan by Rotterdam-based KAAN Architects, in 2004, to create two worlds inside one monumental edifice.
A brand new white-cubed museum now rises as an autonomous entity hidden inside 4 painstakingly restored courtyards within the coronary heart of the historic neo-classical constructing that was closed to the general public in 2011.
The enlargement supplies 40 per cent extra exhibition area with vivid white halls, far-reaching sightlines, lengthy staircases and ranging gradations of daylight.
The unique constructing (circa 1890) has been revamped with sympathy to the dimensions and weight of previous centuries; the craftsman’s hand nonetheless seen within the age and put on, oak and wax, brushstrokes and plasterwork retained to convey historical grandeur.
“At a sure level I needed to clarify to the plasterer to not make the partitions too easy, the parquet installers to not shut the gaps,” says Walter Hoogerwerf, restoration mission chief. “Stunning however not good, matching the monument.”
The KMSKA is certainly one of Europe’s main artwork museums. The complete assortment runs to 8400 objects and 650 important works from the 14th to twentieth century have been moved – body by body, pedestal by pedestal – into the brand new gallery areas.
Two huge halls are devoted to Antwerp’s most well-known painters – Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck – whereas masterpieces by Simone Martini, Antonello da Messina, Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Henry Van de Velde, Amedeo Modigliani, Rene Magritte and James Ensor are displayed throughout the galleries.
Whereas KMSKA was beneath building, 4000 masterpieces had been loaned to nationwide and worldwide galleries, seen by an estimated 6.7 million artwork lovers across the globe. Colossal artworks that had been too large or too fragile to maneuver had been transported via hatches within the flooring to conservation areas inside the museum in a heroic effort worthy of an epic portray all by itself.
See kmska.be/en
