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| Art Brussels | |
|---|---|
| Name | Art Brussels |
| Genre | Contemporary art fair |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Location | Brussels, Belgium |
| First | 1968 |
| Venue | Tour & Taxis |
| Founder | Herman De Vries de Wé |
| Attendance | ~30,000 |
Art Brussels Art Brussels is an annual international contemporary art fair held in Brussels since 1968. The fair brings together galleries, curators, collectors, critics, and institutions from across Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania to present modern and contemporary visual arts within a trade fair framework influenced by the histories of Galerie Templon, Gagosian Gallery, Pace Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, and David Zwirner. It has intersected with major cultural events such as the Venice Biennale, Documenta, Frieze Art Fair, Art Basel, and the Armory Show.
The fair was founded in 1968 by Belgian art dealer Herman De Vries de Wé and early leadership connected to Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Musée Magritte Museum, and the then active network around Galerie Isy Brachot, Galerie St. Laurent, and Galerie du Dragon. Through the 1970s and 1980s Art Brussels negotiated relationships with institutions like Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Stedelijk Museum, and national ministries such as the Flemish Community cultural services. In the 1990s the fair expanded alongside developments at FIAC, TEFAF, and the rise of galleries such as Whitechapel Gallery affiliates and commercial partners including Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams. The 2000s brought strategic shifts aligned with biennials including Skulpturenpark, collaborations with collectors linked to Fondazione Prada, and relocation episodes involving Tour & Taxis and Brussels Expo. Recent decades saw curatorial innovations influenced by curators from Serpentine Galleries, Kunsthalle Bern, ICA London, and the New Museum.
The fair is organized by a management team with ties to agencies like Artforum, Flash Art, Apollo Magazine, and networks including European Cultural Foundation and Prince Claus Fund. Governance has included board members drawn from institutions such as Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Fédération des Galeries d'Art Contemporain, and the Belgian Association of Art Dealers. Directors have engaged curatorial advisors from S.M.A.K., WIELS, Museum Ludwig, Hamburger Bahnhof, and Hayward Gallery. Partnerships and sponsorships have linked the fair to cultural funders like CultuurInvest, corporate partners resembling ING Group, KBC Group, and media partnerships with Le Soir, De Standaard, The Art Newspaper, and ARTnews.
Programmatic strands have included Solo presentations, Solo(s), Comeback, Discovery, and Special Projects, curated in dialogue with institutions such as Kunstmuseum Basel, Musée d'Orsay, Neue Nationalgalerie, Fondazione Merz, and MACBA. Special Projects have featured site-specific commissions resembling work shown at Venice Architecture Biennale and collaborations with curators from Hayward Gallery Touring. Exhibition design practices draw on scenography traditions from La Biennale di Venezia and temporary displays akin to those at Frieze Sculpture. The fair has hosted thematic projects referencing histories in collections like Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal and archives such as Getty Research Institute and Archives of American Art.
Participants include leading commercial galleries and emerging spaces from networks like Independent Art Fair, NADA, Liste, Artissima, and Zona Maco. Notable represented galleries have parallels with Galleria Continua, Sprüth Magers, Lehmann Maupin, Perrotin, and regional protagonists such as S.M.A.K. Gallery affiliates, M HKA partners, and Belgian dealers including Xavier Hufkens and Rodolphe Janssen. International participants have hailed from New York City, London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Milan, Zurich, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Lisbon, Istanbul, Athens, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Moscow, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Los Angeles, Mexico City, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Nairobi, and Melbourne.
The fair presents awards and prize frameworks developed with partners such as the Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, the Belgian Directorate-General for Cultural Affairs, and private foundations akin to LUMA Foundation and Guggenheim Foundation. Prizes have acknowledged solo-presentations and emerging artists in a manner comparable to the Hugo Boss Prize, Turner Prize, Prix Marcel Duchamp, and university-linked awards like those administered by Royal Academy of Arts. Jury panels have included curators and critics from Tate Modern, MoMA PS1, Van Abbemuseum, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Seattle Art Museum, and collectors aligned with The Broad and Pinault Collection.
Art Brussels has been influential in shaping contemporary art markets and curatorial careers, intersecting with scholarship from Columbia University, Yale School of Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, and policy debates within European Parliament cultural committees. Critics and commentators from publications such as The New York Times, Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, El País, and The Guardian have covered the fair, situating it amid market dynamics involving auction houses like Sotheby's and institutions such as Centre Pompidou. The fair's programming has been credited with boosting galleries' international profiles similar to the way Art Basel Miami Beach and TEFAF Maastricht have, and alumni artists have moved into collections at Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and corporate collections associated with BMW Group and Deutsche Bank.
In recent editions the primary venue has been Tour & Taxis, a historic industrial site redeveloped in conversation with urban plans from Brussels-Capital Region and logistics partners including Brussels Airlines for travel facilitation. Exhibition infrastructure uses standards shared with international fairs like Frieze New York and protocols reflecting guidelines from ICOM and FIABCI event management. Freight and shipping have relied on networks connecting to ports and hubs such as Port of Antwerp, Rotterdam, Schiphol Airport, and customs procedures coordinated with Belgian Customs Administration.
Category:Art fairs Category:Contemporary art in Belgium