Artists of Luxembourg

Luxembourg's most prominent artists

Today, the visual arts are highly valued in the country: artists are respected members of society and permanent exhibitions have become part of everyday life. The Grand Duchy has many museums and galleries (e.g. MUDAM - Museum of Modern Art and the National Museum of History and Art), where you can see both classical paintings and contemporary installations.

Joseph Kutter (1894-1941)

Source:Wikipedia

Joseph Kutter is an expressionist painter who has been called one of the founders of Luxembourg's modern art. He received his art education in Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Cologne and then studied at the Munich Academy for four years, which had a decisive influence on his style. Kutter's work is characterised by sombre expression: dark tones predominate with occasional light accents (the influence of Paul Cézanne). He is best known for his series of "Clowns" (1936-1937) - portraits of clowns against a dark background, conveying gloom and despair through the contrast of light and shadow. These paintings made a strong impression on his contemporaries with their emotional depth and are considered the artist's trademark.

Kutter was not immediately recognised during his lifetime, although his work was exhibited abroad. After his death, interest in his work increased significantly. Today, Joseph Kutter's paintings are the pride of Luxembourg's national collections. They can be seen in the exposition of the National Museum of History and Art in the capital. Some of Kutter's works are highly valued on the art market: so, in 2016, one of his paintings was sold at auction for a record for the artist ~$47.5 thousand. Kutter's name is rightly associated with the formation of distinctive Luxembourgian painting of the 20th century.

Edward Steichen (1879-1973)

Source:Wikipedia

Edward Steichen is a Luxembourg-born photographer who became famous as one of the world's greatest photographers. He emigrated to the United States as a child, where his brilliant career took place. Steichen became a key figure in the development of 20th century art photography. At the beginning of the century he, together with Alfred Stiglitz, led New York's Photo-Secession movement and became one of the pioneers of the fashion photography genre. His exquisite portraits of Hollywood stars (such as Greta Garbo), taken in the 1920s and 30s for Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines, set the standard for glossy photography.

In addition to shooting, Steichen made history as an innovative curator. From 1947 to 1962 he headed the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. His most famous curatorial project was the legendary exhibition The Family of Man in 1955, an ambitious display of 503 photographs selected by Steichen from over 2 million images from around the world. The exhibition, which showed the unity of mankind through images of people from different countries, was a huge success and toured the world. Edward Steichen has received numerous awards (including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the United States) and is recognised as one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. His Luxembourg origins are a source of pride for his country, although he worked internationally as an American photographer.

Lucien Wercollier (1908-2002)

Source:Wikipedia

Lucien Wercollier is a sculptor whose name is inextricably linked with Luxembourgian art of the 20th century. He is considered one of the country's most important sculptors of the last century. Wercollier received his classical training in Brussels and Paris, and in the 1930s was inspired by the works of the great modernists - Constantin Brancusi, Jean Arp and Aristide Maillol. Vercollier's early sculptures were realistic figurative sculptures, but after the Second World War he tended increasingly towards abstract plasticity, achieving in his work a fluidity of form and a 'silky' surface reminiscent of the graceful imagery of Brancusi and Arp. In the period 1952-1955 the master finally turns to abstraction, working mainly with bronze and marble. His favourite motifs are intertwining smooth lines and dynamic balances of masses, conveying the beauty of movement.

Wercollier became famous not only for his work but also for his courageous civic stance during the Second World War. Refusing to join the Chamber of Culture created by the Nazis and to fulfil the orders of the occupation authorities, he was subjected to repression. In 1942 Lucien was arrested by the Gestapo and spent several months in Neumünster prison and Hinzert concentration camp. He embodied the horrors of war in the symbolic sculpture Le Prisonnier Politique (The Political Prisoner), creating it as an act of release from pain. After the war, there were no more direct motifs of grief in Wercollier's works - on the contrary, his monumental compositions in bronze and stone exude love of life and spiritual fortitude. His sculptures decorate public spaces not only in Luxembourg, but also abroad - his monuments can be seen in France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Israel and the USA. Lucien Vercollier's work has become a symbol of revival and humanism in Luxembourg's post-war art.

Michel Majerus (1967-2002)

Source:Wikipedia

Michel Majerus is a vivid representative of the generation of artists of the 1990s, who successfully combined traditional painting with the aesthetics of the digital age. He was born in Luxembourg, studied at the Stuttgart Academy of Art, and since the early 1990s has lived and worked in Berlin. Majerus quickly made a name for himself on the European art scene: by the end of the 1990s he had already become known as an innovative postmodern painter. His large-scale canvases and installations were characterised by eclecticism and a bold mix of pop culture visuals. The artist drew inspiration from everything from video game graphics and animation to advertising logos and the works of his predecessors (Andy Warhol, J.-M. Basquiat and others). He freely combined academic painting with elements of digital design, creating a dynamic kaleidoscope of contemporary signs on canvas.

Majerus did not limit himself to the limits of the canvas - he turned entire spaces into art objects. For example, in 1999, at the invitation of curator Harald Seemann, Majerus painted the facade of the pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and in 2002 he covered the famous Brandenburg Gate in Berlin with a giant photographic canvas (Sozialpalast) of his own authorship. Critics have noted that Michel Majerus was a key figure in his generation of artists who explored the relationship between art, mass culture and technology. Unfortunately, his life was tragically cut short - in 2002, Majerus died in a plane crash. Nevertheless, in his short career, he left an extensive legacy of over 200 works, which have subsequently been shown in major exhibitions around the world, including retrospectives at the Musée d'Art Moderne du Grand Duke Jean (MUDAM) in Luxembourg and the Tate Museum in Liverpool.

Su-Mei Tse (born 1973).

Source: René Rötheli / Aargauer Kunsthaus

Su-Mei Tse is a contemporary artist who has made Luxembourg famous on the international art scene. Born into a family of musicians (her father is from China and her mother is English), she has been involved in music since childhood. Trained in both classical cello and visual arts, Su-Mei has developed a unique interdisciplinary approach to creativity. In her work, she combines visual imagery, sound, photography, video and even dance to create multi-layered artistic statements. International success came to her in 2003 when, at the Venice Biennale, Su-Mei Tse was honoured with the prestigious Golden Lion Award for the best national exhibition - the installation "Air Conditioned" in the Luxembourg pavilion. This victory was a landmark event: it was the first time a Luxembourg artist had received such a high honour in the world art arena.

Since then, Su-Mei Tse has exhibited extensively around the world, with solo and group exhibitions in Europe, Asia and the USA. In Luxembourg, her works are part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MUDAM), such as the famous installation fountain "Many Spoken Words" (2009), which is a glittering column of water jets in the form of many letters. Su-Mei Tse's art is deeply philosophical and poetic: she explores themes of time, memory, language and music. Critics have noted the sincerity and subtle humour of her artistic expression. Despite her cosmopolitan lifestyle (she lives and works between Luxembourg, Paris and Berlin), Su-Mei Tse emphasises that her worldview is strongly influenced by the culture of her native Luxembourg. Today, she is one of the country's best-known contemporary artists, proving that even a small country can be represented at the highest level in the arts.

Street art in Luxembourg

A conversation about Luxembourg's artistic life would be incomplete without mentioning street art. The first graffiti appeared here in the 1980s, when it was an underground youth craze associated with hip-hop and skateboard culture. In those years, drawings were secretly painted under bridges and on concrete walls, and society perceived them as vandalism rather than art. The situation began to change in the 1990s: enthusiasts succeeded in creating the first legal mural walls in the capital. On one of these walls, in the Gare neighbourhood (rue de Strasbourg), young graffiti artists trained, many of whom are still active today - among them Sumo, Stick, Spike, Dan Sinnes and others. They became the real pioneers of Luxembourg graffiti.

Today, street art in Luxembourg has come out of hiding and become a recognised art genre. Graffiti writers have evolved into urban artists whose colourful murals adorn the city's streets. For example, the artist Sumo, who started out as a "bomber" in the 90s, is now known for his Crazy Baldhead series of cheerful characters and participates in prestigious projects. His journey symbolises the transformation of the whole scene: from illegal drawings on fences - to painting national airline planes (in 2017, Sumo did a graffiti design of a Luxair plane). The authorities also support street art: special walls have been set aside in the capital for free painting, and festivals and exhibitions dedicated to urban art are held. Luxembourg street artists are now known outside the country - their works can be found in European cities and on the pages of international magazines. Thus, street art has become an integral part of Luxembourg's contemporary culture, demonstrating the fresh perspective of a young generation of artists on urban space.