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Whether you’re after Basquiats, Magrittes, street murals or Old Masters, Brussels has it all. Ahead of Art Brussels April 19-22, we bring you our selection of must-see art from the Belgian capital

1. Art Brussels, 19-22 April 2018

Celebrating its 50th anniversary edition this year, will bring together 147 galleries from 32 countries, transforming brussels into a focal point for international collectors, gallerists and art lovers. 

Art Brussels is specifically curated to shine a light on new and emerging work, spotlighting new artists and young talent. According to Managing Director Anne Vierstraete: “The fair will continue to be an exciting lab for discovery and a place to see booths from some of the top blue chip international galleries.” The fair has played an important role in developing the city’s contemporary art scene, and is now supported by a roster of satellite events.

Inside the Royal Museums of Fine Arts' Musee des Beaux-Arts building. 

2. Royal Museums of Fine Arts

The is a collection of six museums: the Old Masters Museum, the Musée Modern, the Musée Wiertz, the Musée Meunier, the Musée Magritte and the more recent Musée Fin-de-Siècle. Collectively, they comprise over 20,000 works of art, which each building focused on a different era or inidividual artist.  

The lion’s share of the collection is kept in the Musée des Beaux-Arts on Rue de la Régence — the building that inspired W. H. Auden's famous poem Musée des Beaux Arts. The Old Masters, Modern Art, and the Fin-de-Siècle Museums can all be found here, under one roof. You could spend a whole day exploring the collection and still not see everything, so if you have the option, it’s preferable to focus on one museum at a time. Admission is free on the 1st Wednesday of each month, and is always free to the Musée Wiertz and Musée Meunier.

3. Art Nouveau at the Musée Fin-de-Siècle

While its part of the Royal Museums complex, as its newest addition, the  merits its own entry. Unique in the city, the institution is the only one of its size dedicated entirely to art nouveau — the movement that highlighted Brussels' status as a thriving center for art and design at the dawn of the 20th century. A highlight is the Gillion Crowet Collection, which features over 200 works by artists including Victor Horta and Alphonse Mucha. If you want to retrace the history of art nouveau and its deep connection to the city of Brussels, this museum is the place to do exactly that.

4. Musée Magritte

For fans of Surrealism, this is a must see. René Magritte is Belgium's most celebrated Surrealist, and this award-winning museum is entirely dedicated to his work — expect floating apples, bowler hats and umbrellas.

Housed in a beautiful neoclassical building on the Place Royale, the displays over 200 original Magritte paintings, drawings and sculptures, including Scheherazade, The Return, and The Empire of Light. This multimedia permanent collection is the biggest Magritte archive anywhere in the world and, to add a personal touch to the experience, most of the works come directly from the collection of the artist's widow, Georgette Magritte. The museum also contains Magritte's experiments with photography from 1920 onwards, as well as the rare short surrealist films he made from 1956 onwards.

René Magritte (1898-1967), Empire of Light II, 1950, Oil on canvas, 31 x 39" (78.8 x 99.1 cm), © 2018 C. Herscovici, Brussels

5. Bozar Centre for Fine Arts

Just moments from the Beaux-Arts Museum, is the center for fine arts, — confusingly both are pronounced the same way. Bozar is the most-visited cultural destination in Brussels, home to all kinds of art and culture, including visual art (painting & sculpture), cinema, dance, music, literature and stunning architecture.

With an ever-changing roster of exhibitions, Bozar always has something new and exciting to offer. Visual art currently on show at Bozar includes from Dirk Braeckman’s display at the Venice Biennale, painting (including works by Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Dalí and Miró), by Bulgarian artist Nedko Solakov, and a collection of five stained glass windows by the acclaimed African-American artist, Kehinde Wiley, who was recently commissioned to paint President Barack Obama’s official . This incredible collection is accompanied by a selection of recurring expos like the Summer of Photography and Europalia, as well as international TED Talks and music concerts. Bozar is well worth a visit.

Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977), Arms of Nicolaas Ruterius, Bishop of Arras, 2014, stained glass, 54 × 36 1/2 in (137.2 × 92.7 cm)

6. WIELS Contemporary Art Centre

Considering Belgium’s prestigious reputation for craft beer, it’s quite fitting that is housed in a former brewery. Rather than redeveloping the space, much of the 1930’s industrial architecture has been carefully preserved, even down to the vast copper beer vats. These authentic features blend in perfectly alongside the WIELS Centre’s bold and eclectic collections, such as Yayoi Kusama's spotted pink balloons, or animal replicas produced by Kosovar artist Petrit Halilaj.

One of the most exciting things about WIELS is that they are a consistent source of support for emerging international artists, and offer industry defining residencies every year. Working across nine studios, these young artists are given the opportunity to develop their craft, realize their vision, and display their works in a unique environment. By supporting this art centre, you’re effectively supporting grassroots contemporary art.

Opening on April 19th, is a groundbreaking exhibition that focuses on the value of art itself. The exhibition will present a variety of works from the 80s and 90s (on loan from private Belgian collections) as a way of exploring the 1989 global shift — a time in which Western artists began interrogating the notion of value, as their artistic production was recontextualized within the new space of the global market. Among the artists featured are: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Katharina Fritsch, Jack Goldstein, Lili Dujourie, Franz West, and Yan Pei-Ming.

7. Almine Rech Gallery

made a name for herself as a powerful force in the otherwise male dominated Parisian art scene, opening her first gallery in Paris with a light installation by (the then unknown) artist James Turrell. Exploding out of the Parisian scene, Rech opened a gallery in Brussels 2007. Alongside works by major established artists, the Brussels gallery offers a platform for showcasing works by young and upcoming artists, in line with Rech’s personal history of discovering and nurturing surprising new talent. The gallery has recently carved out a particular niche for itself as the home of Brussels’ minimal and conceptual art.

From 18 April - 19 May, the gallery will exhibit , a solo display by Marcus Jahmal. Combining Fauvist, Cubist, and Expressionist influences, jahmal’s paintings depict worlds in which “interior spaces have made way for dreamscapes, where jungle, savannah and desert mesh together. Planes of violently and flamboyantly contrasting colour constitute a dry, abstract background from which characters, masks, shamans, and wild animals burst forth.” (Almine Rech Gallery). A visit to Jahmal’s exhibition at Almine Rech Gallery is a unique chance to discover an emerging talent before they’re launched to international success.

Marcus Jahmal (1990), Solid Ghosts runs at Almine Rech Gallery from April 10 - May 19.

8. Belgian Comic Strip Centre

Comic strips have a rich cultural history in Belgium, so much so that they’ve been elevated to the level of high art. In fact, Belgium is the home of some of the most influential and beloved comics of all time, such as the Smurfs, Spirou and Tin Tin. The treats these icons with the respect they deserve, tracing the history of comic book art from its early 20th century beginnings to its influence on pop and contemporary artists. For fans of Tin Tin, there is an entire section dedicated to the legendary Belgian artist Hergé, accompanied by a fantastic selection of displays exploring the work of less widely-known comic strip writers. Moreover, the building is a work of art in itself — an Art Nouveau masterpiece designed by the renowned Belgian architect Victor Horta. The Comic Strip Centre is well worth a visit — whether you go for the architecture, the exhibitions, or the unparalleled comic book shop.

9. Brussels Street Art

Brussels is an epicentre of street art and colorful wall murals. More than 50 walls across the capital are painted with murals — most of them situated along the Brussels Comic Strip Walk, an unprecedented street art initiative created by the Belgian Comic Strip Centre in 1991. You can find comic strip heroes Le Chat, Lucky Luke, Asterix and Obelix and the indomitable Tin Tin and Snowy, painted on street walls, sides of buildings, shop windows and subway stations. The Brussels Tourist Office can even provide you with a of all the murals the city has to offer, so you can set about exploring for yourself. The majority of Brussels’ murals aren’t limited to comic book characters.So keep your eye out for street scenes, seascapes, satirical cartoons, portraits of celebrities, erotic drawings, and even trompe l’oeil secret gardens. 

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