Ruud van Empel – Voyage Pittoresque

until November 1, 2020

Ruud van Empel – Voyage Pittoresque

Lush vegetation in a jungle, butterflies in a field with colorful, blooming flowers. The works of Ruud van Empel (Breda, 1958) are wonderful and alienating at the same time. Because no matter how normal it may seem, Van Empel brings things together that never come together in reality.

Van Empel uses countless details of people, plants, animals or objects photographed by himself to cut and paste digitally. His "collages" are ingenious and realistic, but the images do not exist in real life.

In the context of Ruimtemakers, an initiative of the Municipality of Breda to liven up the city this summer, Stedelijk Museum Breda invited Ruud van Empel to present work in the outdoor space. Van Empel made a choice from his "landscapes" and is showing a diptych from this series in the museum and at three outdoor locations in the city.

Locations:

  • Stedelijk Museum Breda
  • End Speelhuislaan (Station Breda)
  • Corner Bouwerijstraat/J.F.Kennedylaan
  • Liniepark (corner Lachappellestraat/Archimedesstraat)

The title, Voyage Pittoresque, refers to the travels that artists made in previous centuries through Europe, to conclude their education or to gain inspiration. Once at home, they made imaginative compositions of what they had seen along the way. Just like Van Empel, they created artificial images that invite us to look at the world around us with different eyes.