Jan Vanriet, real name Jan Louis Lucien Vanriet, (21 February 1948) is a Belgian (Flemish) painter and poet.http://janvanrietcom.webhosting.be/en/biography/
Early life and education Jan Vanriet was born in Antwerp and attended the Royal Atheneum of Hoboken where the art critic and promotor Marcel van Jole was one of his teachers.http://janvanrietcom.webhosting.be/category/blog/ In 1965, while visiting Prague, he met the avant-garde graphic artist Pravoslav Sovak, who at 22 years older, became his mentor. The following year Vanriet was invited to the artist's studio in South Bohemia, where he painted a series of landscapes. Their friendship continues today.
In 1968, Vanriet started painting studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.Jan Vanriet: It may be that people are able to learn lessons from the past, Darya Palatkina, The Art Newspaper, Russia As a young art student and a debuting poet, he became deeply involved in writers' actions against literary censorship in Belgium, actions that became very famous when he organised a Protest Read-In at the Majestic Theatre in Antwerp, with 40 authors on stage and an audience of over 1000. A second Read-In was organised at Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (Bozar). It was here that he met his future wife, Simone Lenaerts.Jarig in mijn schitterend woord: opstellen over Hugues C. Pernath, Academia Press, 2012, , p.69
In 1971, he became the youngest member of the editing council of the influential political monthly De Nieuwe Maand (The New Month), a group of ambitious politicians from catholic and socialist parties, amongst them, the later prime ministers Jean-Luc Dehaene and Wilfried Martens, and European Commissar Karel van Miert.Tussen bescherming en verovering: sociologen en historici over zuilvorming, ed. Jaak Billet, Universitaire Pres Leuven, 1988, p.321
Beginnings as a painter
After his studies in 1971, Vanriet’s first gallery exhibition was at De Zwarte Panter, directed by his former fellow student Adriaan Raemdonck.Zo Krachtig Kan Verf Zijn, Eric Rinckhout, De Morgen, 19 March 2015 Immediately afterwards, a partnership was born with Jan Lens and his reputed gallery, Lens Fine Art, the most prestigious Belgian gallery at the time, which was to last for ten years. During this period, he developed into an excellent aquarellist and a few books were published: Maria Lecina, Death in Venice, Het teken van de hamster.
Vanriet also developed as a writer. Collections of poetry were published by Manteau and for Flemish Radio 3 (now Radio Klara), he wrote a series of poems entitled Staat van Beleg (State of Siege), set to music by Bob Porter.Gezichtsverlies' - beklijvende tentoonstelling van Jan Vanriet in jarig Museum Kazerne Dossin, Jan Smets, Mechelen Blogt, 1 December 2013 He wrote articles for weekly magazines such as Vrij Nederland and for the Dutch monthly magazine Avenue, he edited a literary contribution from Belgium.Jan Vanriet, Jan Van Hove, De Standaard, Saturday 18 July 2015
He took part in the Menton Biennale and exhibited at Galerie Brusberg in Hannover and Galleria del Naviglio in Milan, where he met the distinguished French art historian and critic Pierre Restany, who became a fervent admirer of Vanriet's work. The Palais de Beaux-Arts (Bozar) in Brussels and the Kunstverein in Darmstadt exhibited the Death in Venice series. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp purchased his work. At this time, he began collaboration with the literary magazine Revolver, designing its covers until 2010.
Biennials
In 1982, he joined the prestigious Galerie Isy Brachot in Brussels and Paris, where he presented 11 solo exhibitions in 10 years. Edward Lucie-Smith published a monograph on his work and Pierre Restany wrote the text for Vanriet’s first solo exhibition at Galerie Isy Brachot in Paris, l’Etat du siege du regard.http://janvanrietcom.webhosting.be/en/bibliography/ Vanriet was selected for the Sao Paulo Biennale (1979) and began a long series of exhibitions in California, mostly at the Wenger Gallery in San Diego, and later in Los Angeles.Belgian Painter Vanriet brings his vision to San Diego, Elise Miller, Los Angeles Times, 9 November 1981Realistically speaking, Vanriet's Watercolors are In, Richard Reilly, The San Diego Union, 15 November 1981
Vanriet's work is in the collections of, among others, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the San Diego Museum of Art and the Hewlett Packard Corporation in Palo Alto.http://janvanrietcom.webhosting.be/en/biography/2/ He was appointed Director of Antwerp’s Hoboken Academy of Art. He left the school in 1999.
The Ministry of Flemish Culture published a monograph of his work and selected him to represent Belgium at the Venice Biennale (1984) together with Karel Dierickx and Jan Fabre.Coming Together to Close, Flanders Today, 12 May 2010 Vanriet was invited to participate in the Olympiad of Arts in Seoul (1989)Toues les émois de la vie en peinture, Claude Lorent, La Libre, 13 February 2015 and his monumental canvas Compte à règler is now in the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul. In between, he stayed two summers in New York to work in Bernar Venet’s studio, where his friend artist David Levine often came to visit him.Attention ! Jan Vanriet a demandé expressément de gommer la plaque de rue avec Photoshop !, Le Soir, Saturday 8 October 2011 Commissions for portraits were awarded by the New York lawyer and art patron Harry Torczyner, the Belgian Parliament and the University of Louvain (portrait of rector Pieter De Somer for the Ceremony Hall).
In the context of Antwerp 93 (Antwerp as European Cultural Capital 1993), the Elzenveld Art Centre opened new gallery areas with a large-scale exhibition of Vanriet’s recent work. This was not his only contribution to this festival year: he also painted the entrance hall ceilings in the restored Bourla Theatre.
1990 The Special Prize at the Art Festival Seoul, together with John Chamberlain and Mimmo Rotella.
Closing the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
In the mid-1990s, Vanriet finished a series of 50 portraits as well as Volgens Johannes, 35 large works on Korean hanji paper, inspired by the Gospel of John, for which Dutch poet Benno Barnard wrote an epic text. An exhibition was held at the Veranneman Foundation in Kruishoutem, together with a show by French abstract painter Pierre Soulages.http://janvanrietcom.webhosting.be/en/exhibitions/
Meanwhile, Jan Vanriet renewed his partnership with De Zwarte Panter Gallery in Antwerp. New works were collected by the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, and by Deutsche Bank, Royal Belge, Crédit Lyonnais and Zürich Insurance. The Stedelijk Prentenkabinet at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp also procured preparatory studies for Johannes.
In 2001 he received the Van Acker Prize in Bruges (previous laureats: Hugo Claus, Frans Masereel, Roger Raveel).
In May 2004, the in Detmold (Germany) exhibited Transport, paintings 1999-2004, many of them inspired by the tragic events in World War II. For Vanriet this is not an unusual theme; his parents and other members of his family engaged in the resistance against Nazi invaders, but they were made prisoner and deported to the concentration camps of Mauthausen and Ravensbrück.Many Jews refused to discuss the Holocaust - it is too painful, Izvestiya, 27 January 2015
A year later, in 2005, Vanriet travelled to Israel for the hanging of his triptych Nathan the Wise in the historical building of the Jerusalem International YMCA, designed by Arthur Loomis Harmon. The Flemish Government and other governmental institutions donated Vanriet's work as their official present on the occasion of the state visits of Jorge Sampaio, President of Portugal, Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine, Romano Prodi and José Manuel Barroso, both Presidents of the European Commission, Jack Lang, French Minister of Culture and more.Olé olé olé olé, Het Nieuwsblad, Luke van Bakel, 21 October 2005
In 2010, Paul Huvenne, the director of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp invited Jan Vanriet to ‘close’ the museum, where enormous works of renovation were to start. With the exhibition Closing Time he proposed a selection of 170 masterpieces from the collection, including works by Rubens, Van Eyck, Van Dyck, Titian, Cranach, Ensor and Modigliani in confrontation with a retrospective selection of his own work.Coming Together To Close, Anna Jenkinson, Flanders Today, 12 May 2010 88,000 visitors attended.http://artbahrain.org/web/?p=3355
That same year, Vanriet painted the official portrait of the departing cardinal Godfried Danneels for the Archbishop's palace in Malines. In 2013, the public was stunned by Vanriet's series of Jewish deportees from Belgium to Auschwitz. The exhibition Losing Face was shown at the Museum Kazerne Dossin in Malines.Rendre un visage aux victimes dez nazis, Guy Duplat, La Libre, 28 November 2013 Belgian press proclaimed Losing Face as one of Europe's major exhibitions.Een gezicht voor de doden, Jan Van Hove, De Standaard, 25 November 2013 The prominent Flemish author Stefan Hertmans and the Hungarian novelist György Konrád contributed to the accompanying publication.Dit is mijn monument, Wim Daeninck, CITT, 30 November 2011
Newest projects
Closed Doors was the inaugural exhibition of Roberto Polo Gallery in Brussels, in November 2012.Group Shoes and guitar heroes. This weekend in Belgium, The Word Magazine, 22 November 2011 It started an intense and inspiring collaboration between the artist and the American art historian, theorist and gallerist. In February 2015, Vanriet’s second solo show, Vanity, opened the new extended gallery, which virtually doubled its size.
This collaboration brought Losing Face to the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre in Moscow (January 2015), where President Vladimir Putin visited the show.Holocaust Exhibit Gives Faces to the Victims, Layli Foroudi, The Moscow Times, 28 January 2015 This exhibition was designed by the architect Sergei Tchoban. In May 2015, the National Museum in Gdansk proposed Song of Destiny, a survey show of Vanriet’s paintings from 1986-2014.Dankzij Luk Tuymans kan figuratieve kunst weer. Ik zou hem eens moeten trakteren, Mark Schaevers, Humo, 9 June 2015 In the accompanying book, Polish poet Adam Zagajewski made an appearance. The National Museum in Gdansk acquired 2 of his paintings in 2014. The same year, 5 of Vanriet’s watercolours entered the collection of the British Museum in London, and The Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw acquired 2 of his paintings. The New Art Gallery Walsall acquired 2 of his paintings in 2015. In January 2016, Vanriet's UK premiere took place with a survey show, The Music Boy at the New Art Gallery Walsall. The eponymous exhibition catalogue contains essays by Charlotte Mullins, Andrew Graham-Dixon and Martin Herbert. Hollands Diep, the new publishing house of former Bezige Bij director Robbert Ammerlaan, publishes Moederland (Motherland), Vanriet’s recent poetry. In September 2016, Vanriet, along with 15 renowned painters, 7 other Belgians and 8 Americans, participated in the Brussels manifesto exhibition 'Painting After Postmodernism', curated by Barbara Rose, a show also presented in Malaga and in the Caserta Palace near Napels. In 2018 he showed his series 'Ex Voto' at De Zwarte Panter and published 'Radeloos geluk’ (Desperate Happiness, published by Hollands Diep), 580 pages of autobiographical essays, nominated for the Bookspot Prize for Literature in the Netherlands. In 2019 Poëziecentrum publishes an overview of Vanriet’s poetry, ‘Kouwe kleren’ (Cold Clothes).
Public spaces and applied art