Flemish art and heritage collections, in great detail
The 24th of September 2022, KMSKA in Antwerp will re-open its doors to the public. After 11 years of renovations, art lovers will once again be able to admire the impressive collection. Equally impressive is the building’s turbulent history. We traced the story across our platforms artinflanders.be and hetarchief.be, looking for images, sound fragments and art to tell the story of Antwerp’s largest art museum.
The predecessor of the KMSKA is called the “Academie”, which traces back to the Guild of Saint Luke, a gild of artists and tradesmen that was founded in the 14th century. What the Academy looked like before everything moved to the current location, can still be seen on Henri Van Dyck’s painting The interior of the old museum (1886). It looks impressive, but became too small for the ever-growing collection, so a new location was needed.
In 1877 a contest for renowned architects was launched. Several Belgian competitors entered the race, and an astonishing 1 million Belgian franks is put aside for the realization. Alas, none of the candidates was able to sway the judges completely, so two of the most promising architects, Jean Jacques Winders and Frans Van Dijk were asked to merge their ideas into a joint design.
After 6 years of construction, the new museum at het Zuid in Antwerp opens its doors on the 11th of August, 1890. In 1905, the chariots by Thomas Vinçotte are put on the roof of the museum to complete the well-known façade. You can still catch a glimpse of that on this old postcard, found on this platform.
When the First World War breaks out, drastic measures are taken almost immediately. The museum and the gardens around it are closed off and the art is transported to bomb shelters in order to keep it safe. After the First World War, the collection starts growing and 40 years after its erection, the museum has become too small, again. Several renovations are made and 4 patio’s are transformed in to new exhibition rooms.
In the months before the Second World War, the museum fears the worst for its extensive collection. The precautions that were taken were not sufficient. A bomb exploded right next to the museum, costing the lives of 32 passers-by and causing great damage. The glass roofs shattered and several works of art were damaged. The restorations take up several years.
When the city of Antwerp organises the Year of Rubens in 1977, many organisations join in. Of course, the KMSKA wanted to put its best foot forward. However, the lack of modern comfort in the museum is acute. That’s why 1976 marks a new set of renovations: electric lighting, climate control and fire detection are introduced. The façade of the museum is also touched up.
Despite all the work, the museum did not stand the test of time. In 2003, new plans for renovations were made. The Flemish government introduced a masterplan for a complete metamorphosis. At hetarchief.be, you can find the descriptions of countless video and audio fragments from this period. You can also find the metadata of the documentary Dertienduizend onder één dak. That documentary includes many historic images of the collection, the building and the activities during these years. You can order it through hetarchief.be.
In 2006, KAAN Architects were assigned to convert the masterplans into concrete plans for renovations. In 2011, the museum closed its doors and the renovations began. But even in 2008, the project had a lot of media coverage. In these fragments of the news of 22 December, you can already tell it’s a hot topic.
“It needed more than a lick of paint,” as the museum itself stated. The building’s capacity is increased with 40% and the budget of the project is raised to 100 million euros. The renovations are often picked up by the media and at hetarchief.be, you can read the descriptions of dozens of news items. One of them is the fragment from the news on the 5th of December 2018. Even the laying of the mosaic stones is covered by local media ATV in 2021.
The renovations were also the ideal time to get other work done. All 650 works of art that will be on display got new descriptions, and many were re-framed. Others were cleaned or restored. Head of restorations, Gwen Borms explains the process in the news of 13 December 2021. All of this work will give an extra layer of shine to the already grandiose opening in September.
Sources for the images on this page:
1. The interior of the old museum by Henri Van Dyck, collection KMSKA, photo: Hugo Maertens, license: public domain
2. Postcard view from the museum, collection KMSKA, photo: Hugo Maertens, license: public domain
3 & 4. Interior view in the museum, collection KMSKA, photo: Hugo Maertens, License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
