MUSEUM TO SCALE 1/7

Camiel Van Breedam is one of the leading representatives of assemblage art in Belgium. In the late 1950s, he belonged to the Antwerp renewers of G58 Hessenhuis and only painted abstract work. He gradually turned to reliefs, collages, assemblages, objects, sculptures and environmental sculptures, all imbued with a very personal, explicitly humanist vision. His sources of inspiration – from jazz and literature to the culture of the native American Indians and the decline of industry in his native Rupel region – are as diverse as the materials he uses. These are often recovered, rescued from the rubbish heap of consumer society. They show the patina of a previous life and illustrate Van Breedam’s sensitivity to threats to individuals, society and the environment. His works offer a constructive and poetic response to breakdown, oppression and violence. What is damaged, seemingly incompatible or meaningless, Van Breedam mends in a delicate and hopeful way.