(© Matthew Day Jackson, detail, Study Collection 1, 2009)
For Sympathy for the Devil, building contractor and art collector Walter Vanhaerents has selected works with a dark side from his collection. The richly illustrated exhibition catalogue by “the man of wealth and taste” is in bookshops now.
A devilish book
ART BOOK | Sympathy for the Devil ●●
Pierre-Olivier Rollin, Walter Vanhaerents, Valerie Verhack Lannoo, €34,99, 144 p.
Walter Vanhaerents owns a considerable collection of monumental artworks that has been open to the public since 2007. The works are displayed in an old Brussels warehouse that has been beautifully renovated by architects Robbrecht & Daem. For his latest exhibition, Vanhaerents made a selection based on the rock song “Sympathy for the Devil” from the Rolling Stones album Beggars Banquet. The book, which bears the same name, looks very intriguing. From the cover, a red skull – a detail of the work Study Collection 1, 2009 by Matthew Day Jackson – stares out at you threateningly. The inside cover shows the golden room of artist James Lee Byars. Each artist is extensively documented and illustrated: young national and international artists, but also established names like Barbara Kruger, Mario Merz, or Bruce Nauman. A book about art, however, is still primarily a picture book and here we found some shortcomings. The photography does not always do justice to the works. All in all, though, it’s a book about an interesting exhibition by a collector who himself claims: “I don’t buy art for exhibitions, I buy what I like.”
Pierre-Olivier Rollin, Walter Vanhaerents, Valerie Verhack Lannoo, €34,99, 144 p.
Walter Vanhaerents owns a considerable collection of monumental artworks that has been open to the public since 2007. The works are displayed in an old Brussels warehouse that has been beautifully renovated by architects Robbrecht & Daem. For his latest exhibition, Vanhaerents made a selection based on the rock song “Sympathy for the Devil” from the Rolling Stones album Beggars Banquet. The book, which bears the same name, looks very intriguing. From the cover, a red skull – a detail of the work Study Collection 1, 2009 by Matthew Day Jackson – stares out at you threateningly. The inside cover shows the golden room of artist James Lee Byars. Each artist is extensively documented and illustrated: young national and international artists, but also established names like Barbara Kruger, Mario Merz, or Bruce Nauman. A book about art, however, is still primarily a picture book and here we found some shortcomings. The photography does not always do justice to the works. All in all, though, it’s a book about an interesting exhibition by a collector who himself claims: “I don’t buy art for exhibitions, I buy what I like.”
(© Jean-Luc Moerman)
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