From Bruegel to Claerbout: the KMSKA’s ambitious and varied exhibition programme for 2027

12.02.2027-16.05.2027  (Print Room)

When Andy Warhol (1928–1987) is mentioned, one often pictures the Campbell’s soup tins and the colourful pop portraits. But before his breakthrough as a Pop Art icon, he worked as a commercial illustrator for fashion magazines, book covers and record sleeves. His experiments with line, form and composition, and the recognisable visual language he developed through them, would form the basis for his later work.

In the spring of 2027, the KMSKA will delve specifically into these lesser-known early years, from Warhol’s first commissions in 1949 to his artistic breakthrough in 1961. Rare works on paper showcase both professional designs and his personal drawings of still lifes, cats, shoes and friends. This focus exhibition offers an intimate insight into the multifaceted artist behind the world-famous images.

27.02.2027-06.06.2027

Pieter Bruegel made a name for himself with entertaining, absurd, enigmatic and sometimes provocative works of art in which he depicted proverbs and expressions literally. Much like today’s cartoons and memes, he used them to critique people and society. Folly Beyond Words is the first major exhibition to explore how figurative language has inspired visual artists worldwide.

The exhibition takes Bruegel as its starting point and shows how artists such as Rubens, Jordaens, Michaelina Wautier and Jan Steen carried on the tradition. It does this by drawing on exceptional international loans, whilst also offering a fresh interpretation of masterpieces from its own collection. At the same time, it explores parallels in non-European art, ranging from Iranian and Chinese pottery to Japanese woodblock prints. Each and every work is a conversation piece that sparks dialogue about human frailties and habits, as well as social issues such as inequality and corrupt practices. Themes that are just as familiar today as they were back then.

20.03.2027 – TBD

Following its first edition in 2025, Collected with Vision will return to the KMSKA in the spring of 2027. This time, the museum is collaborating with the Vanhaerents Art Collection, one of the most important private collections in our country. It stands out for its monumental works, powerful visual language and bold artistic choices. The collection brings together contemporary artists who explore the boundaries of art, both visually and conceptually, and challenge our expectations of the traditional museum.

Collected with Vision. Vanhaerents Art CollectionI sheds new light on the museum’s collection and invites visitors to view familiar masterpieces with a fresh perspective. An inspiring journey that breaks down the boundaries between art periods in search of unexpected connections.

22.05.2027-29.08.2027

Paul Joostens (1889–1960) is one of Antwerp’s most idiosyncratic modern artists. After an early period as a post-impressionist and painter of cubo-futurist female figures, Joostens no longer wished to follow in anyone else’s footsteps. Deliberately going against the prevailing aesthetic, he created a universe of his own in which the subversive spirit of Dada blends with the spirituality and gothic style of medieval Flanders.

Following a donation of 214 works of art by Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, the KMSKA brings together Joostens’ wide-ranging oeuvre. Paul Joostens. Poezeloes offers a fascinating insight into a surprising artist who refused to be constrained by conventions or aesthetic expectations.

10.07.2027-05.09.2027  

In honour of his 100th birthday, the KMSKA is celebrating Pierre Alechinsky with a special focus exhibition. The exhibition centres on The Last Day (1964), a monumental masterpiece from the museum’s collection. Through a selection of oil paintings and ink drawings, the exhibition demonstrates how the artist playfully explores movement, intuition and expressive freedom.

Also featured is Alechinsky’s admiration for the grotesque and imaginative visual world of James Ensor (1860–1949). This is an intimate yet powerful tribute to one of the most original artists of the twentieth century.

10.07.2027-05.09.2027

For almost fifty years, Van Breedam has been a striking figure on the streets of Antwerp, invariably dressed in red. Both as an artist and as a human work of art, his life and oeuvre are almost identical. This exhibition reflects on nearly seven decades of creativity, ranging from large-scale installations to small collage booklets and assemblages.

In Van Breedam’s body of work, used materials such as wood, fabric and metal are given a new lease of life. What others might regard as discarded or worthless becomes, for him, the starting point for new images and stories, often concerning injustice, inequality and society. Furthermore, he brings together craftsmanship, art and his diverse artistic influences. The exhibition presents an artist who never ceases to create and who, through his choice of materials and his outlook on life, questions the world around him.

08.10.2027-16.01.2028 (Print Room)

In the autumn of 2027, the KMSKA and the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) will jointly present a selection from the country’s most important collection of drawings. From Pieter Bruegel, Joris Hoefnagel and Hendrick Goltzius to Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Giambattista Tiepolo: the exhibition brings together works by some of the great names in European drawing, complemented by surprising discoveries by lesser-known artists.

Despite its exceptional quality, this collection remains largely unknown to the general public. With an exhibition featuring some 75 master drawings, the KMSKA aims to change that.

The drawings offer a unique insight into the artists’ creative process. From initial ideas and preparatory studies to independent works in which line, composition and imagination take centre stage. Together, they demonstrate the versatility of the medium and bring us closer to the mindset and craftsmanship of the Old Masters.

09.10.2027-16.01.2028

In the autumn of 2027, marking the 450th anniversary of the birth of Peter Paul Rubens, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) and the Rubens House will jointly present the exhibition Rubens and the World. This extensive exhibition sheds new light on the artist. The world-famous master of the Antwerp Baroque also embodies the story of a world in flux.

In the seventeenth century, Antwerp was a bustling port city where goods, ideas and people from all corners of the globe converged. Rubens and his contemporaries closely examined what they saw and incorporated those impressions into their art.

At the same time, the exhibition also explores the reverse interaction. Works of art from other cultures, which can be traced back to Rubens’ prints, travelled the world and in turn inspired new works, such as an Iranian miniature, an Indian relief or a Mexican sculpture.

Rubens and the World is based on recent research that examines the old master and his environment through the lens of early modern globalisation. This is the first time that this global dimension of his work will have been presented on such a scale in Rubens’ own city.

To mark Rubens’ birthday, the Romanian artist Adrian Ghenie (b. 1977), one of the leading artists of his generation, has drawn inspiration from one of his great role models. He has created a monumental painting which will be on display concurrently with the exhibition Rubens and the World in the Rubens Gallery of the KMSKA. The work enters into a dialogue with Rubens’ Adoration of the Magi and demonstrates how, in his multi-layered paintings, Ghenie interweaves historical images, iconic figures and motifs from art history with contemporary visual culture and personal memories. His reinterpretation highlights how Rubens’ visual language continues to inspire artists, centuries later.

27.11.2027-20.03.2028

The KMSKA will round off 2027 with an exhibition on David Claerbout, a leading contemporary artist who works at the intersection of photography, video and digital technology. An inventive itinerary through the museum’s historic galleries interweaves his contemporary video works with the art of the Old Masters.

In a world where images follow one another at lightning speed, Claerbout invites us to slow down and pay attention. His works play with time, light and perspective. By slowing down images, stretching them out endlessly or playing them on a loop, he creates space to reflect on what we see and how we look at it. Using computer-generated imagery (CGI) and artificial intelligence, the artist also explores the boundaries between the photographic, the digital and the moving image.