Art Deco Brussels: Van Buuren Museum & Gardens launches autumn cultural season

The van Buuren villa and garden in Uccle hosts a series of cultural activities this autumn around its major exhibition Around Art Deco. Interbellum Sculptures.

A flagship event in Brussels’ Art Deco centenary programme, as well as the van Buuren Foundation’s 50th anniversary celebrations, the retrospective is running until 28 September.

For its themed spin-off programme, the garden pavilion of the 1928 architectural gem is the intimate setting for an exceptional classical music concert by Belgian violinist Valère Burnon on 18 September at 19.00. The third laureate of this year’s Queen Elisabeth Competition performs works by Beethoven, Mozart, Franck and Rachmaninov, among other composers, for the recital.

Following in the footsteps of Alice van Buuren, the home’s eminently stylish former owner, Isabelle Sadoux delivers an olfactory lecture (in Fr) on 24 September at 19.00. She will talk about the role of perfume in 1920s modernity. 

A family workshop on 27 September at 10.00 is an opportunity to learn about the plant world via observation and drawing. Designed for all ages, the activity (in F & NL) is inspired by the property’s period gardens and requires no previous drawing skills.

The exhibition itself encapsulates the turbulent 20th century interwar period through the prism of the resplendent Art Deco site. Some 36 works are on display in the exceptional preserved interior of the red-brick villa and its landscaped gardens.

They reflect the modernity of the era as artists explored new forms of expression following the horrors of the first world war. Although the focus is on Belgian artists such as Philippe Wolfers, Constant Permeke and Rik Wouters, towering international figures include Ossip Zadkine (pictured below) and the Martel brothers, French sculptors who feature in the van Buuren collection.

Significantly, they are joined by three women artists: Yvonne Serruys, Jeanne Tercafs and Rachel Van Dantzig; their inclusion is pertinent as the show focuses on representations of the female form. The selection also echoes the figurative painting that characterises the art collection of David and Alice van Buuren, the influential couple who created this artistic paradise.

To close the Art Deco year, a new exhibition will present a selection of period silhouettes and accessories illustrating the evolution of fashion in the Art Deco era. From 6 November to 2 February, the Van Buuren Museum & Gardens partners with the Brussels Fashion & Lace Museum to stage the show 1925: Fashion in the Age of Art Deco.

More information here: Van Buuren Museum & Gardens

Photos: ©Van Buuren Museum and Gardens, Uccle, Brussels; Ossip Zadkine, Torse de la ville détruite ©BE CULTURE