Bert Mertens. Places speak to us. An art that calls for the beauty of places - 2nd visit
- exhibition
-
guided tour
Looking is a way of being in the world. But what if we really looked? Places speak to us... This is what Bert Mertens' pictorial art brings to our attention.
Bert Mertens was born in Leuven (Belgium) in 1955. After a career in the medical field, he discovered oil painting in August 2018. This marked the beginning of an artistic career without academic training but not without references. He flourishes in painstakingly realistic hand-executed painting. From visible reality rendered with detailed precision, he brings out unnoticed complexity, brilliance, or humor. He invites us to discover the unusual within the familiar, depth beneath the surface, being beneath appearance. He is interested in traces of human experience and directs our gaze to places we might not naturally look.
Do a cluttered old garage, a messy building site, or an illegal rubbish dump deserve a glance? Bert Mertens observes the density of life beneath the surface, the visual poetry brought out by plays of light or reflections, the closeness of colors, the interplay of lines and shapes.
His work was recognized in 2024 with the Jos Albert Prize from the Royal Academy of Belgium (Arts Section). The freedom given by his detailed realism allows him to distance himself from media-driven spectacle and ready-made emotions, to recover the autonomy to question, interpret, and admire the forgotten beauty of ordinary life, with its humanity.
In particular, Bert Mertens reveals the genius of everyday places where human work occurs: their energy, the tenderness, or the unseen humor they possess.
Good to know
Guided tour in French by Myriam Watthée-Delmotte, director of FNRS research & honorary professor at UCL Louvain, in the presence of the artist.
Elvire Geiben will welcome Friends of the Museums for this tour.
Visits, excursions, and trips are reserved for members of the Friends of the Museums of Luxembourg association.
A final confirmation will arrive 2 to 3 days before the event.
Photos and videos may be taken during the visit.
Automatically translated from French.
Where does it take place?
National Art & History Museum
Luxembourg
by 
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