Address | Rue Ravenstein / Ravensteinstraat 23 1000 City of Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region Belgium |
---|---|
Coordinates | 50°50′37″N4°21′35″E / 50.84361°N 4.35972°E |
Public transit | |
Type | Performing arts centre |
Construction | |
Opened | 1929 |
Architect | Victor Horta |
Website | |
Official website |
The Centre for Fine Arts [1] [2] (French : Palais des Beaux-Arts; Dutch : Paleis voor Schone Kunsten) is a multi-purpose cultural venue in the Royal Quarter of Brussels, Belgium. It is often referred to as BOZAR (a homophone of Beaux-arts) in French or by its initials PSK in Dutch. This multidisciplinary space was designed to bring together a wide range of artistic events, whether music, visual arts, theatre, dance, literature, cinema or architecture.
The building housing the Centre for Fine Arts was designed by the architect Victor Horta in Art Deco style, and completed in 1929 at the instigation of the banker and patron of the arts Henry Le Bœuf. It includes exhibition and conference rooms, a cinema and a concert hall, which serves as home to the Belgian National Orchestra (BNO). It is located at 23, rue Ravenstein/Ravensteinstraat, between the Hôtel Ravenstein and the headquarters of BNP Paribas Fortis, and across the street from the Ravenstein Gallery . This site is served by Brussels-Central railway station and Parc/Park metro station on lines 1 and 5 of the Brussels Metro.
Victor Horta began designing the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels following World War I, in a more geometric style than his previous works, similar to Art Deco. The Belgian Parliament initially denied funding for the plans. [3] With the founding of the Société du Palais des Beaux-Arts in 1922, the project was revived. Construction started in 1923, [4] albeit with several restrictions: the Brussels authorities supplied a very irregular area on the slope between the city's upper and the lower part, the main façade had to house shopping facilities, and the height of the building was restricted so as not to compromise the King's view of Brussels' skyline from the Royal Palace. [5]
The building was originally intended to be built of stone, but Horta made a new plan of reinforced concrete with a steel frame. He had intended the concrete to be left exposed in the interior, but the final appearance did not meet his expectations, and he had it covered. It took more than a decade to complete the complex, which contains a large concert hall—the Henry Le Bœuf Hall—in an unusual ovoid, or egg shape. It is accompanied by a recital room, a chamber music room, lecture rooms, and a vast gallery for temporary exhibitions. He managed to put together this array of different functions on a rather small building plot with restricted conditions using more than eight building levels with a large part situated underground.
Since 2002, the Belgian federal intuition has chosen the brand name BOZAR, which has eight artistic departments: BOZAR Expo, BOZAR Music, BOZAR Cinema, BOZAR Dance, BOZAR Theatre, BOZAR Literature, BOZAR Studios and BOZAR Architecture. BOZAR is home to the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Société Philharmonique/Philharmonische Vereniging, which invites the world's major orchestras and performers to appear at the Henry Le Bœuf Hall. The finals of the Queen Elisabeth Competition for classical singers and instrumentalists, one of the most challenging and prestigious competitions of the kind, are also held there. Up to ten exhibitions a year are organised at BOZAR, and have included Jeff Wall, Luc Tuymans, Frida Kahlo, Lucas Cranach, Gilbert & George, Wim Delvoye, Venetian, Flemish Masters, Keith Haring and "It's not only rock'n'roll Baby".
Victor Pierre Horta was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. He was a fervent admirer of the French architectural theorist Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and his Hôtel Tassel in Brussels (1892–93), often considered the first Art Nouveau house, is based on the work of Viollet-le-Duc. The curving stylized vegetal forms that Horta used in turn influenced many others, including the French architect Hector Guimard, who used it in the first Art Nouveau apartment building he designed in Paris and in the entrances he designed for the Paris Metro. He is also considered a precursor of modern architecture for his open floor plans and his innovative use of iron, steel and glass.
The Parc du Cinquantenaire or Jubelpark is a large public, urban park of 30 ha in the easternmost part of the European Quarter in Brussels, Belgium.
Paul Saintenoy was a Belgian architect, teacher, architectural historian, and writer.
The Palace of Justice of Brussels or Law Courts of Brussels is a courthouse in Brussels, Belgium. It is the country's most important court building, seat of the judicial arrondissement of Brussels, as well as of several courts and tribunals, including the Court of Cassation, the Court of Assizes, the Court of Appeal of Brussels, the Tribunal of First Instance of Brussels, and the Bar Association of Brussels.
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Museum, the Magritte Museum, the Fin-de-Siècle Museum, the Modern Museum, the Antoine Wiertz Museum and the Constantin Meunier Museum.
Europalia is a Brussels-based, international biennial arts festival that highlights the cultural heritage and art scene of one invited country. On multiple occasions, the festival has also dedicated editions to a theme rather than a country. Europalia was established with the aim of bringing the arts and culture of European countries to the heart of Europe itself. Although, since 1989 – with Europalia Japan – non-european countries have also featured. The very first festival in 1969 was dedicated to Italy.
The Academy Palace or Palace of the Academies is a neoclassical palace in Brussels, Belgium. It was originally built between 1823 and 1828 for Prince William II of Orange. Nowadays, it houses five Belgian academies including the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB). In English, it is also often called the Academy House.
The Autrique House is a historic town house in Brussels, Belgium. This house, built in 1893, was the first designed by Victor Horta in Art Nouveau style, and represents an essential step in the evolution of the Belgian architect. In many ways, it was an innovative dwelling, although it does not feature the novel spatial composition of the almost contemporary Hôtel Tassel. It is located at 266, chaussée de Haecht/Haachtsesteenweg, in the municipality of Schaerbeek.
The Hôtel van Eetvelde is a historic town house in Brussels, Belgium. It was designed by Victor Horta for Edmond van Eetvelde, administrator of Congo Free State, and built between 1895 and 1898, in Art Nouveau style. It is located at 4, avenue Palmerston/Palmerstonlaan in the Squares Quarter. Two extensions, also designed by Horta, were added between 1898 and 1901.
The Pavilion of Human Passions, also known as the Horta-Lambeaux Pavilion, is a neoclassical pavilion in the form of a Greek temple that was built by Victor Horta in 1896 in the Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark of Brussels, Belgium. Although classical in appearance, the building shows the first steps of the young Victor Horta towards Art Nouveau. It was designed to serve as a permanent showcase for a large marble relief The Human Passions by Jef Lambeaux.
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels is an art school in Brussels, Belgium, founded in 1711. Starting from modest beginnings in a single room in Brussels' Town Hall, it has since 1876 been operating from a former convent and orphanage in the Rue du Midi/Zuidstraat, which was converted by the architect Victor Jamaer. The school has played an important role in training leading local artists.
The major town houses of Victor Horta are four town houses in Brussels, Belgium, which have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. All four houses were designed and built by the Belgian architect Victor Horta (1861–1947), who pioneered the Art Nouveau style during the mid-1890s.
The Avenue de Tervueren or Tervurenlaan is a major thoroughfare in Brussels, Belgium. It was originally commissioned by King Leopold II as part of his building campaign, and was finished in 1897, in time for the Brussels International Exhibition of that year.
The Brussels International Exposition of 1897 was a world's fair held in Brussels, Belgium, from 10 May 1897 through 8 November 1897. There were 27 participating countries, and an estimated attendance of 7.8 million people.
Éliane Georgette Diane de Meuse was a Belgian painter. She was the wife of Max Van Dyck. They met at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels where they attended the courses of the same professors.
Michel Draguet is a Belgian art historian, professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles, and previously the director and CEO of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium since May 2005. Draguet is a member of the board of the federal administration for science: the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO).
Henry Le Bœuf was a Belgian banker, patron of the arts and music lover.
Marie-Françoise Plissart is a Belgian photographer and video artist.
Charles Leirens was a Belgian photographer and musician. He started giving concerts in public at the age of eight and after studying composition in college composed music for a time. During World War I he worked for the Belgian services in London. In 1928 he became the first Director-General of the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, creating La Maison d’Art in December 1933; cofounded the Revue Internationale de Musique (1936–1952). He also made photographic portraits of celebrated artists from the 1930s to the 1960s. He spent most of World War II in the United States, teaching, writing and exhibiting his work. After the war, he traveled as a photographer to Puerto Rico and Morocco, before returning to Belgium, remarrying and continuing to perform concerts and exhibit photographic work.
The Art Deco movement of architecture and design appeared in Brussels, Belgium, immediately after World War I when the famed architect Victor Horta began designing the Centre for Fine Arts, and continued until the beginning of World War II in 1939. It took its name from the International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts held in Paris in 1925. At the end of World War II, Art Deco in Brussels faded to make way for the modernist and international architectural styles that would mark the postwar period.