Next year, the Broodthaers Society and KB45 (Art in Belgium since 1945) will organise The Unauthorized/Unexamined Marcel Broodthaers, a series of exhibitions, publications and performances celebrating the centenary of Marcel Broodthaers (1924–1976). In anticipation of the event, Joe Scanlan reflects on the present and future of the Belgian artist’s legacy.
Oblivion All Over Again
Thirty-five years ago, in the introductory notes to October magazine no. 42, German art historian Benjamin H.D. Buchloh made an ambivalent, almost tortured case in support of an artist’s work — an artist who, in Buchloh’s mind, was already teetering on the brink of obscurity. That artist was Marcel Broodthaers.
Broodthaers had moved to Düsseldorf in 1971 to work more closely on several museum exhibitions and, to a certain extent, escape Belgium. Having been a visual artist there for seve (…)
