ANTWERP – The new Museum de Reede in Antwerp, which will open its doors in the autumn of 2016, will exhibit the graphic art of world-famous artists Edvard Munch, Francisco Goya, and Félicien Rops.
The initiator is the De Reede Foundation of the same name. This is the first time that such an extensive collection of over 150 works by the three artists will be exhibited at the same time.
Therefore, the new museum expects a large influx of visitors from home and abroad.
The foundation's permanent collection includes a hundred works by Spanish painter and engraver Francisco Goya (1746-1828). These include his series Los Caprichos, the series of aquatint etchings he made in 1797 and 1798, which were published together as an album in 1799. Los Caprichos was intended as an artistic experiment through which Goya wanted to depict the universal follies of Spanish society. The collection also includes most of the works from the series Los Disparates, which Goya made between 1815 and 1823, and five works on bullfighting from the series La Tauromaquia, which he published in 1816.
The foundation owns thirty etchings, mainly lithographs, by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944). His work shows a modern individual struggling with his existence. Munch opened the way to modernity and the twentieth century with his expressive distortions. Together with Ensor, he is considered one of the forerunners of expressionism in Europe.
The foundation owns more than thirty graphic works by the Belgian graphic artist, painter, and caricaturist Félicien Rops (1833-1898). Rops was the most unconventional and most appreciated illustrator of his time. His prints in the collection mainly show his erotic and anti-clerical manifestations.
The works of Rops and Munch were previously shown together during the exhibition 'Man/Woman Félicien Rops and Edvard Munch', which was shown in Brussels, Korea, and Norway in 2006 and attracted 100,000 visitors in those three countries.
The De Reede Foundation was established on February 24, 2016, with a branch in Antwerp. The main goal of the foundation is to set up a museum dedicated to graphic art: Museum De Reede. A building has been purchased for this purpose at Ernest van Dijckkaai 7 in Antwerp - next to the Eugeen Van Mieghem Museum, which will be adapted and renovated in the coming months. The museum will open its doors here in the autumn.
For more information, please contact board member Harry Rutten of Stichting De Reede Tel: 0032 472 19 02 00, e-mail: info@museum-dereede.be. On Tuesday 14 June at 10.30 a.m., a press conference will be held under the auspices of the city of Antwerp in the future museum, in the presence of Mayor Bart de Wever and Alderman for culture, economy, patrimony, city and neighborhood maintenance and worship Philip Heylen. Journalists are cordially invited.