Acquisitions

The M HKA collection continues to expand. When new artwork is purchased, primary consideration will be given to the avant-garde tradition in Antwerp since the 1960s, today’s multipolar world, the importance of the ‘performative’ dimension and the social commitment aspect of contemporary art. The nature and role of images today is also an important component. In fact, donations and long-term loans are assessed in this context. Moreover, the public is granted maximum transparency by the fact that the M HKA does not claim to pursue encyclopaedic completeness. Rather, it makes specific references and acquires meaningful items. Acquisitions ensure maximum leverage; they represent a symbolic capital and seek to maximise the sustainable impact of the public domain through this commitment. Significant works by national and African, Asian and North and South American artists have substantially improved our collection in recent years.

In 2013, the collection was extended by international avant-garde of our region of the 60s and 70s, with emphasis on performativity and socially critical engagement. Accordingly, on the occasion of the exhibition “Art of Antwerp 1958-1962”, the collection was expanded with a remake of the installation Groentenkisten by reference artist Jan Henderikse. Cherica Convents bestowed the museum the rights to show a documentary film about the project and Jacob’s Ladder by Gordon Matta-Clark. From the Croatian artist Ivan Kožarić, the museum padded out its collection by acquiring a dozen graphs and screen prints in addition to this artist’s recent acquisitions. The small collection on concrete and visual poetry was expanded this year with the first five feature films by the Italian artist Sarenco.

In 2013, works were acquired by more recent artists who continued the avant-garde tradition in the subsequent period. Regarding Guillaume Bijl, the museum was able to expand its body of works in 2013 with scripts in words and pictures, so-called treatises. These works form the basis of Bijl’s later ‘transformation installations’. In a similar vein, the collection of the young artist Vaast Colson was honed with a number of smaller works, editions and multiples. Based on the collection presentation, Het Karakter van de Collectie, he brought his show ‘To retitle an object daily during the course of a show’ for the third time. During one month, Colson re-named a banal object, this time a ‘Mickey Mouse’ merchandising figure from the Vrielynck Collection, every day. The art collection which, after the neo-avant-garde era, faced a conceptual cricis [beeldproblematisering] in Flanders was, in terms of key figures and recent developments, further strengthened. Of Tuymans, the collection edities was completed with some graphs. With the acquisition of three drawings, the Claerbout collection became more complete. Here too, the museum could acquire work by a local budding artist that can be considered to question the concept [beeldbevraging], namely Rinus Van de Velde.

In 2013, the museum could not pass up the opportunity to acquire a major work by the Peruvian reference artist Teresa Burga. The installation Autorretrato.  Estrectura. Informe on 09.06.72 was Teresa Burga’s main exhibition in the 70s. In this extensive project, Burga used her own body to create a medical card of herself. It consists of drawings of her profile and photos of her face, an ECG, a light reflecting her heart function and a biochemical blood analysis. Despite the fact that the project was received with much scepticism in Lima, it is without doubt one of the most important artistic projects of its time. Autorretrato was (and is) not just an ironic reflection on the traditional idea of ​​the “self-portrait”, but also criticises processes that seek to normalise the individual. (Miguel A. Lopez, exhibition flyer “Teresa Burga”, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin, 2012).

Of the recently deceased artist Allan Sekula, the museum acquired the distinct installation The Dockers’ Museum, which was on display in the exhibition Ship of Fools in 2010, which the museum has owned in part since 2011. This installation is a seminal collection of small objects put together by Sekula that offer insights into the basic position of seamen and port workers. These collected “objects” are not regarded as works of art, but contextualise Sekula’s photography, while these, in turn, thematise Sekula’s continued activity of collecting. Through the masterpiece fund of the Flemish Community, the Flemish Government acquired the Panamarenko Archives in 2012, which were deposited at the M HKA in 2013. The museum also acquired some smaller works, editions and multiples by various artists.

In 2015, important works by national, European, African, Asian and South American artists were bought. When the M HKA started to collect, it did so with a focus on the avant-garde tradition in Antwerp (Wout Vercammen) and the wider region of north-western Europe (with Charlotte Posenenske and Robert Filliou) from the 1960s, as well as mindful of the importance of the ‘performative’ and socially engaged contemporary art in today’s multipolar world (Imran Qureshi, Ricardo Brey, Maha Maamoun or Vadim Fishkin). This commitment was always accompanied by specific attention to the nature and role of the image today.

Further to Wout Vercammen’s three-part exhibition A well-considered idea of ​​an exhibition the M HKA bought the entire third section, a series of brightly coloured pop art silkscreens. The themes deal with news items from magazines or newspapers. Each time, two parts were mounted one on top of the other. By German artist Charlotte Posenenske, further to her exhibition on the ground floor of the M HKA, one of her structures was acquired, while two others were loaned. Posenenske worked in a tradition of constructivist and concrete art, and was looking for an innovative form of production and distribution. She wanted to bring about social change through art. When she noticed that this did not work, she left the art world.

The M HKA has also acquired works of art by more recent artists who have built on this avant-garde tradition. For example, Danny Matthys has donated quite a few of his older Polaroid works. The Danny Matthys collection has thus gained further importance. Further to the exhibition The Pink Spy, it was possible to complete the museum’s already decent representation of Narcisse Tordoir in the collection. The artist donated Africeur the Bogolan, a textile work he created with two Malian artists. The local Bogolan paint technique is used here as a lever to explore the medium of painting. The M HKA also bought the painting Ontploffing by him, while Tordoir also donated the installation Tekstkamer (character observant le ceiling).

Internationally, the collection was expanded with some brilliant work. The past year, the M HKA increased the Fluxus-related collection with a large installation by Robert Filliou: 10 telegrams. With this work, we managed to add a classic Filliou to the collection and now have a proper museum representation of this artist.

We have also bought a five-part work of Maha Maamoun: Caïroscapes. Through photography and video, Maha Maamoun explores the gap between representation and interpretation of certain events, along with the underlying political preferences and hidden power relations. In this series, the city views seem taken from behind a burka.

From the exhibition Don’t you know who I am, an installation by Imran Qureshi was purchased. This in-situ installation sends a clear socio-political message. It appeals to beauty from close up, while, from a distance, it seems more like the aftermath of a massacre.

Another addition to the collection is the pioneering work Untitled, Documenta IX, Kassel, Kassel (1992) by Ricardo Brey which was restored for his monographic exhibition Op de bodem van de hemel.

The M HKA has also bought a work by Vadim Fishkin on the theme of global warming.

The V.A.C. foundation gave the M HKA a substantial donation this year in the shape of the video Tightrope, puppet theatre Way of an Object and the installation Landscape by the Dagastan artist Taus Makhacheva.

Friends of the M HKA have also donated quite a number of works, including an installation by Jean Katambayi, a Congolese artist, which is the most eye-catching of the works. Trotation is a home-made piece of machinery that works only in the imagination. The machine is intended to eliminate the imbalance between the different continents. The artist says that when the earth revolves around its axis and around the sun, those nearest to the equator are at a disadvantage because they have to make a greater revolution than those living further north. By adding a third random rotation, he wants to disrupt this natural order and restore balance.