Dirk de Bruycker, Set of Eyes, Color Lithograph, Belgian Abstract Expressionist Tamarind Print, 1997

Signed, dated and titled. Initialed and dated lower right, each numbered 8/20, lower left. 9 x 6 image size, 22 x 15 in. sheet size. With the blindstamp of the Tamarind Institute print workshop.

Belgian American Abstract Expressionist artist. Born in Ghent, Belgium in 1955 he relocated to Santa Fe in the 1980’s. During the past few decades he divided his time between New Mexico and Granada, Nicaragua. Regarding his migratory lifestyle he said: ‘I think some of the intensity and sensuality of Latin America has crept into my work. He had over 45 solo shows, the first one in Belgium in 1981. Most recently he has been showing his work in Santa Fe, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boca Raton, Scottsdale, Jackson Hole and Ketchum, Idaho. Dirk De Bruycker was born in Belgium. He lives and works in Santa Fe but spends quite a bit of time in Nicaragua. He studied at the City Academy of Fine Arts, Niklaas, Belgium (1964-73), St. Lucas Institute of Fine Arts, Ghent (M.A., 1977), Tamarind Institute (1979-80), University of New Mexico (graduate printmaking, 1980-81).

His work has been in 45 solo shows, nationally and internationally in institutions including, Gebert Contemporary in Santa Fe, NM, Scott White Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA, Lucas De Bruycker Fine Art, Gent Belgium, Rule Modern en Contemporary, Denver, Colorado, AAF annual art fair, NY, NY, Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, Fort Collins, CO, Lemmons Contemporary, NY, NY, Art Miami 2001, Linda Durham Contemporary Art. He has received awards including Vlaamse Executieve, Dienst Musea en Beeldende Kunst: Visual Artist Work grant, National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Artist Fellowship Grant 1988, Laureate, Visions of Excellence, Albuquerque United Artists, NM 1982 Printmaking Laureate, Province of East Flanders Award of Fine Arts, Belgium. His work is in numerous private and public collections including New Mexico Museum of Art, Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri, and the Ministry of Culture of the Flemish Community.
(Excerpts from the essay, Dirk De Bruycker at La Bocona, by David Clemmer , 2013)
The formal influence of certain of Dirk De Bruycker’s antecedents is readily apparent while that of other forebears is more felt than seen, more conceptual than material. His kinship with the groundbreaking mid-century American abstractionists is notable and he cites the works of Willem deKooning, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollack, and Barnett Newman as being of particular importance. Techniques of staining the canvas and pouring of paint, that De Bruycker has long utilized, are strategies that connect his aesthetic DNA to that of Pollock, Rothko, Arshile Gorky, and to the Color Field school painters Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler. His vibrant and luminous canvases reveal what he referred to as a “fragile beauty, a kind of dangerous beauty.”

AWARDS

1991 Vlaamse Executieve, Dienst Musea en Beeldende Kunst: Visual Artists Workgrant
1989 National Endowment for the Arts, Visual Arts Fellowship Grant
1988 Laureate, Visions of Excellence, Albuquerque United Artists, NM
982 Printmaking Laureate, Province of East Flanders Award of Fine Arts, Belgium”

SELECT COLLECTIONS

Flemish Community Government, Province of East Flanders
Ministry of Visual Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Embassy Suites Hotel, Chicago, IL
First Union Bank, North Carolina
HTC Services, Hutchinson, MN
Hallmark Collection, Kansas City, MO
Microsoft Collection, Seattle, WA
Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Mandarin Oriental, New York, NY
Hank Vigil Collection, Seattle WA
Marriott Group
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH
Sprint Collection, Kansas City, MO
Bellagio Collection, Las Vegas, NV
Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, MO
Merck & Co., Inc, Boston, MA
The Federal Reserve, Kansas City, MO
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Oppenheimer Fund,