The Belgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere (*1964) is one of the most important contemporary sculptors. Her work has garnered international acclaim; most recently, De Bruyckere's works attracted attention at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Bozar in Brussels is currently honoring her with an extensive solo exhibition. "Lift Not the Painted Veil" is her first solo exhibition in Hamburg.

In autumn 2021, Berlinde De Bruyckere visited our museum. She was impressed by the wooden sculptures of Ernst Barlach (1870–1938), whose particular relevance to her work and our present, she emphasized. Barlach's woods inspired her to revisit an earlier interest in polychrome (i.e., colored) sculpture. The first work to emerge from this exploration is celebrating its exhibition premiere here. De Bruyckere will also present selected sculptures and drawings from more than three decades in dialogue with works by Barlach from our collection.
Berlinde De Bruyckere chose a line from a poem by the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) as the title for her dialogue: “Lift not the variegated veil which those who live call life.”

Berlinde De Bruyckere, Wezen, 2003-2004 © Berlinde De Bruyckere; Photo: Mirjam Devriendt

Existential dimensions of human existence are at the heart of her sculptural and graphic work, which revolves around violence and vulnerability, desire and constraint, loss and consolation, pain, and the longing for transcendence. De Bruyckere evokes the force and delicacy of such sensations in body-hugging, often expansive sculptures; blankets and animal skins, wood and wax are among her preferred materials. Organic abstraction and an occasionally hyperrealistic figuration merge in works of great urgency. De Bruyckere creates universally valid images against the backdrop of rich European representational traditions, spanning broad arcs between mythology, Christian iconography, and themes of our time.
June 29 to November 2, 2025
www.barlach-haus.de