The Mu.ZEE is a museum in Ostend

Ostend

Ostend  is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke , Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest on the Belgian coast....

 specialized in Belgian art from 1830 on. It was created in 2008 from the former Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst (PMMK, the museum for modern art of the Province of West-Flanders) and the Museum voor Schone Kunsten Oostende (Museum of Fine Arts Ostend), both located in Ostend. The Museum has two dependencies, the Ensorhuis (house of [James Ensor]]) in Ostend, and the Permekemuseum in abbeke]. Mu.ZEE is an abbreviation of "Kunstmuseum aan Zee" ("Art Museum at the Sea").

History

The history of the Museum of Fine Arts of the Stad Ostend starts in 1885, with a large gift by a private art collector. In 1897, a museum was created to house the collection. An airraid in 1940 destroyed the library and archive and some 400 works of art. A new building was opened in 1958. The collection is largely centered on artists from Ostend, mainly James Ensor, Constant Permeke and Léon Spilliaert

Leon Spilliaert

Léon Spilliaert was a Belgian symbolist painter and graphic artist.Spilliaert was born in Ostend, the oldest of seven children of Léonard-Hubert Spilliaert, who was a perfumer, and Léonie . From childhood he displayed an interest in art and drawing. A prolific doodler and autodidact, he was...

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The collection of the Provincial Museum started in 1957, with the regular acquisition of works by young artists. In 1960, the house of Constant Permeke

Constant Permeke

Constant Permeke was a Belgian painter and sculptor who is considered the leading figure of Flemish expressionism.Permeke was born in Antwerp but when he was six years old the family moved to Ostend, where his father became curator of the Municipal Museum of Arts. Permeke went to school in Bruges...

 and a collection of his work was bought, and turned into the Permekemuseum. From 1962 until 1985, the main collection was exposed in Bruges and Ypres

Ypres

Ypres is a Belgian municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Ypres and the villages of Boezinge, Brielen, Dikkebus, Elverdinge, Hollebeke, Sint-Jan, Vlamertinge, Voormezele, Zillebeke, and Zuidschote...

, until a definitive location was found in 1986 in Ostend.

Collection

The collection is mainly focused on Belgian art from 1850 until now, with special attention to the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century. The museum has about 3500 objects (paintings, drawings and etchings), including 180 worksd of Léon Spilliaert, 350 works by Paul Joostens, and a large collection of works by Ensor, Permeke and Jean Brusselmans. Other artists represented include Georges Vantongerloo

Georges Vantongerloo

Georges Vantongerloo was a Belgian abstract sculptor and painter and founding member of the De Stijl group.-Life:...

, 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...

, Raoul De Keyser

Raoul De Keyser

Raoul De Keyser is a Belgian painter, who lives and works in Deinze, Belgium.-Work:De Keyser creates abstract paintings and works on paper...

, Panamarenko

Panamarenko

Panamarenko is a prominent assemblagist in Belgian sculpture. Famous for his work with airplanes as theme; none of which are able nor constructed to actually leave the ground....

, Jacques Verduyn, 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...

, 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...

, Philip Aguirre y Otegui, Karel Appel

Karel Appel

Christiaan Karel Appel was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s...

, Marcel Broodthaers

Marcel Broodthaers

Marcel Broodthaers was a Belgian poet, filmmaker and artist with a highly literate and often witty approach to creating art works....

, Antoon De Clerck, Etienne Elias, Luc Tuymans

Luc Tuymans

Luc Tuymans is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters working today. His signature figurative paintings transform mediated film, television, and print sources into examinations of history and memory.-Life:Tuymans...

, Walter Leblanc, Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Pierre Alechinsky

Pierre Alechinsky

Pierre Alechinsky is a Belgian artist. He has lived and worked in France since 1951. His work is related to Tachisme, Abstract expressionism, and Lyrical Abstraction.Alechinsky was born in Brussels...

, Guy van Bossche, Amedee Coutier, René Magritte

René Magritte

René François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...

, George Minne

George Minne

George Minne was born in Ghent as the son of an architect . Birth names : Georgius Joannes Leonardus...

, Emil Salkin, Jef Verheyen, Vic Gentils and Paul Delvaux

Paul Delvaux

Paul Delvaux was a Belgian painter, associated with Surrealism, famous for his paintings of female nudes.-Biography:...

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Building

The museum is located in a protected modernist building by architect Gaston Eysselinck from 1947, originally a warehouse. From 1986 on it was the location of the PMMK, and in 2008 it became the seat of Mu.ZEE.