The Ear
The title 'The Ear' is inspired by the act of Van Gogh, who - driven by deep insanity - sacrificed his ear and illustrated this several times in painting. In doing so, he placed himself as the suffering Christ within the visual arts.
The ultimate drive behind this is attributed to a hallucinatory attack, a psychotic action, mental problems - in short, an act of insanity.
We can also interpret this as an obsessional act taken to the extreme.
The act of someone who becomes insane because of the harsh, almost masochistic way they work at something that defines their existence.
The question here is: is the ear the work of art, is the act the work of art, is the image of the act the work of art.
Starting from this question, Bruthausgallery selected a wide range of artists who approach painting in their own way. Each artist tests at least one of these elements, which will determine the kind of work they create.
In 'The Ear', the different approaches are confronted with each other and brought into dialogue with manifest painting. In doing so, we keep in mind the question, 'why does an artist paint?
"What motivates the artist to create a particular work?
With the selected artists for 'The Ear', Bruthausgallery tries to represent the medium of painting on a momentary and local level as broadly as possible. The presentation attempts to capture every aspect of what can be considered painting.
This project is in collaboration with various Belgian and international artists and galleries.