Marcel Broodthaers

Marcel Broodthaers was born in Brussels in 1924 and died in 1976 in Cologne. Broodthaers worked primarily as a poet until 1963, when for the last twelve years of his life he made a richly varied, elusive, and influential body of work.  The work he created in this albeit too brief time period was enormously influential to future generations of artists. Known for his associations in which he explores the nature and meaning of language, word and image,  and rhetoric, his work encompasses poetry, writing, books, film, photography, slides, drawing, painting, and sculpture. 

Broodthaers’ work has been shown at Documenta 10, 7 and 5, Kassel (1997, 1982, and 1972) and at the Venice Biennial (1980, 1978, and 1976). A recent retrosppective was held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2016) and traveled to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2016) ending at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, (KNW), Düsseldorf (2017). Other recent solo exhibitions have been held at Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland (2023); WIELS, Brussels, Belgium (2021); M HKA, Antwerp, Belgium (2019); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2018); S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium (2018); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany (2017); Fredericanum, Kassel, Germany (2015); Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2014); Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Bologna, Italy (2012); and the Kunstmuseum Winterthur (2012). Past retrospectives of Broodthaers’ work have been at the Walker Art Center (1989), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1989); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (1989); Jeu de Paume, Paris (1991); the Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels (2000) and the Tate Gallery, London (1980).