Danny Matthys
Encyclopedia
Danny Matthys is a Flemish - Belgian visual artist, which was originally known as conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...

ist of international reputation. In the beginning of his career in the sixties of the 20th century, he was a pioneer in Polaroid art
Polaroid art
Polaroid film is particularly suitable for various forms of alternative processing, possibly the most notable of these are image manipulations with SX-70 film and Emulsion lifting with peel apart film. Many photographers would also exploit the borders left by peel apart film by not cropping off...

 and Video art
Video art
Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and comprises video and/or audio data. . Video art came into existence during the 1960s and 1970s, is still widely practiced and has given rise to the widespread use of video installations...

.

Biography

In 1977 there were two simultaneous exhibition in the Van Abbemuseum
Van Abbemuseum
Van Abbemuseum is a museum of modern and contemporary art located in central Eindhoven, Netherlands, on the east bank of the Dommel river. Established in 1936, the Abbe Museum is named after its founder, Abbe Henri. Abbe was a lover of modern art and wanted to enjoy it there from Eindhoven...

 in Eindhoven and the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht, in the Netherlands, with mainly conceptual work. He is a conceptual artist with respect in Europe. In that time, the Dutch Ger van Elk
Ger van Elk
Ger van Elk is a Dutch artist who works with sculptures, painted photographs, installations and film. His work is generally seen as conceptual art and arte povera. Together with Marinus Boezem, Wim T...

 and Jan Dibbets
Jan Dibbets
Jan Dibbets , is a Dutch conceptual artist.In 1994, he was commissioned by the Arago Association to create a memorial to the French astronomer François Arago, known as Hommage à Arago...

 are also important as European conceptual artists and Joseph Kosuth
Joseph Kosuth
Joseph Kosuth , is an American conceptual artist. Kosuth lives in New York and Rome.-Early life and career:Kosuth was born in Toledo, Ohio. He attended the Toledo Museum School of Design from 1955 to 1962 and studied privately under the Belgian painter Line Bloom Draper. In 1963, Kosuth enrolled at...

 is a big name in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. From the mid seventies Danny Matthys created the development of artistic training at the Urban Arts Institute in Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

. Given the many winners in several national art competitions it was quite valued. His partner there was Eric De Volder, a locally very famous Flemish experimental theater maker. It was a successful educational experiment that was closely linked to the brand new Flemish Ministry of Culture and Flemish Affairs, a forerunner of the current Flemish Culture Ministry.

From the eighties Matthys uses more traditional techniques. Assemblage (art)
Assemblage (art)
Assemblage is an artistic process. In the visual arts, it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects...

 on the basis of strange antique photo series, collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....

 photo mozaiec and oil painting do their entry in his oeuvre.

Australia

In the Late eighties Matthys made several trips to Australia. He has seriously considered emigrating. He has had exhibitions in, among others, the Art Gallery of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, together with the starting up Wim Delvoye
Wim Delvoye
Wim Delvoye is a Belgian neo-conceptual artist known for his inventive and often shocking projects. Much of his work is focused on the body. He repeatedly links the attractive with the repulsive, creating work that holds within it inherent contradictions- one does not know whether to stare, be...

 and created projects with the Australian film - composer Peter Best (composer)
Peter Best (composer)
Peter Best is an award-winning Australian film composer who has contributed to such films as Doing Time for Patsy Cline , Muriel's Wedding , Crocodile Dundee , Crocodile Dundee II , Bliss and The Adventures of Barry McKenzie...

. He has also worked on the old and the new art of Aborigines
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

. He shares experience with Flemish - Belgian dr.Georges Petitjean, who as curator of the Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Utrecht (city)
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...

, (Netherlands)is an expert in the field of anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 and aborigines
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

 in particular and is also active as an art photographer on these topics . However, several serious setbacks in the private atmosphere forced Danny Matthys finally to return back to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.

Art Trip

He later reworks his former collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....

 and even Polaroid art
Polaroid art
Polaroid film is particularly suitable for various forms of alternative processing, possibly the most notable of these are image manipulations with SX-70 film and Emulsion lifting with peel apart film. Many photographers would also exploit the borders left by peel apart film by not cropping off...

 - series with a very personal pointillist technique, in which he has owned several old and modern aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

 - techniques. Since early nineties, he started with what is still best described as Mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...

 or monumental 'tile fragments-Mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...

'. This process also makes a connection with his older monumental photo -
collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....

 - work and his more recent pointilistic method. It gives a strong sense of indestructible timelessness.
His early video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...

 from the sixties and early seventies was restored and better protected from the ravages of time by Argos Foundation in Brussels, with the support of the Flemish Community
Flemish Community
The term Flemish Community has two distinct, though related, meanings:...


Curriculum

His work is part of several museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp
Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp
The Museum of Modern Art in Antwerp is the contemporary art museum of the city of Antwerp, Belgium, and it is one of the most important art museums in Belgium...

 and many private collections in Europe and abroud. Danny Matthys is today a major name in the Flemish "Art - lending " project. Matthys discontinued a few years ago a rich career as a lecturer in art education. He was co-founder and professor of the Department Mixed Media
Mixed media
Mixed media, in visual art, refers to an artwork in the making of which more than one medium has been employed.There is an important distinction between "mixed-media" artworks and "multimedia art". Mixed media tends to refer to a work of visual art that combines various traditionally distinct...

 within the KASK (art academy) of Hogeschool Gent
Hogeschool Gent
With thirteen faculties and 16,000 students, University College Ghent is currently the largest university college in Flanders. Its establishment in 1995 is the outcome of two successful mergers that involved sixteen Belgian institutions of higher education. Many had been influential leaders in...

. On the left front of the SMAK
SMAK
The Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst is a relatively new museum located in Ghent, Belgium, and is renowned both for its permanent collection and for its provocative exhibitions.The new museum opened to the public on 7 May 1999...

 in Ghent is a huge work of him, made up of dozens of life-sized busts in pigmented concrete that is quite indestructible fixed in front of the famous museum. The work was previously conceived in an impressive horizontal drafting. Founding SMAK
SMAK
The Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst is a relatively new museum located in Ghent, Belgium, and is renowned both for its permanent collection and for its provocative exhibitions.The new museum opened to the public on 7 May 1999...

 Director and Curator of Documenta
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...

 IX in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

 in 1992.Jan Hoet
Jan Hoet
Jan, Knight Hoet is the founder of SMAK in Ghent, Belgium.-Biography:Jan curated Documenta IX in Kassel in 1992...

 wanted ultimately to hang it on the museum left frontwall.

Sports, Study and Training

In his youth, Matthys was a gifted cyclist in the category of ’promises’, together with André Dierickx
André Dierickx
André Dierickx was a Belgian professional road racing cyclist between 1969 and 1981.- Notable results :1970 – Flandria-Mars...

, which later won famous classics such as the La Flèche Wallonne
La Flèche Wallonne
La Flèche Wallonne is a major men's professional cycle road race held in April each year in Belgium.The first of two Belgian Ardennes classics, La Flèche Wallonne is today normally held mid-week between the Amstel Gold Race and Liège–Bastogne–Liège...

, but a very serious accident during the last years of his humanities studies in Ghent and a long rehabilitation, gave his life a strong new direction.

Matthys first studied Textile Design at the Hogeschool Gent
Hogeschool Gent
With thirteen faculties and 16,000 students, University College Ghent is currently the largest university college in Flanders. Its establishment in 1995 is the outcome of two successful mergers that involved sixteen Belgian institutions of higher education. Many had been influential leaders in...

 and then at both of the School of Arts and Architecture and the Hogeschool Gent
Hogeschool Gent
With thirteen faculties and 16,000 students, University College Ghent is currently the largest university college in Flanders. Its establishment in 1995 is the outcome of two successful mergers that involved sixteen Belgian institutions of higher education. Many had been influential leaders in...

 completed higher art formation and training in the monumental arts.

Famous names from his professional relations are Hugo Debaere
Hugo Debaere
Hugo Debaere was a Belgian contemporary artist His practice spanned a broad range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, installation art, mixed media and performance.- Study and autodidact :...

(† 1994), Roger Raveel
Roger Raveel
Roger, Knight Raveel is a contemporary Belgian painter, who trained in the academies of Ghent and Deinze. His painting is often associated with pop art because of the use of everyday objects. After 1952 he begins to use large white spaces. A central theme in his work is the opposition of fiction...

, Marthe Wery, Jan Vercruysse
Jan Vercruysse
Jan Vercruyssen is a contemporary visual artist. He currently lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.- Museum Exhibitions:* Salto Prolungato, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium...

, Jan Fabre
Jan Fabre
Jan Fabre is a Belgian multidisciplinary artist, playwright, stage director, choreographer and designer.He studied at the Municipal Institute of Decorative Arts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp...

, Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys was a German performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art.His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social...

(† 1986) and Nick Ervinck.
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