PHILIPPE VANDENBERG : Kamikaze

With Kamikaze the Hamburger Kunsthalle and its curator Brigitte Kölle present a substantial retrospective exhibition of the Belgian artist Philippe Vandenberg (1952-2009). His radical work is getting increasingly more international recognition.

Philippe Vandenberg created a diverse body of work that reflects his Zeitgeist and tries to find an answer to fundamental questions. The title points to the artist's approach to his work: the destruction of previous works and ingrained procedures opened up the way for him to create.

This principle explains the variety of his paintings and drawings, both in form and in content. The exhibition spans the period from 1995 until 2009, and shows figurative works, abstract-geometric experiments and monochrome overpaintings. In his last years, the painter explored, amongst other things, the use of words and fragments of sentences in his work.

Referring to world literature, myths and animal fables, or basing himself on patterns of the cross, the circle and the swastika, Vandenberg touches upon the the dark side of human existence, pain and violence, being separated from each other, and our deep human desire for intimacy and participation. His intense oeuvre is at once disturbing and exciting. It releases paradoxal feelings within the viewer, inviting him or her to recognise or question himself.