Jan Vanriet
Born in Antwerp, 21 February 1948.

• 1972
  After graduating from the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Vanriet showed his work at Adriaan Raemdonck’s De Zwarte Panter Gallery and joined the literary magazine Revolver directed by Gerd Segers, providing illustrations for the magazine’s covers for over 35 years.

• 1974
  Publication of Omtrent the werkelijkheid (About Reality), a documentary book on ‘New Realism in Flemish Poetry’, with a screenprint by Raoul De Keyser on the cover.

• 1975–78
  Start of a close ten-year partnership with Jan Lens and his gallery Lens Fine Art. Vanriet developed into an outstanding aquarellist. Several books featuring his work were published during this period: Mária Lécina (Werumeus Buning), Death in Venice (Thomas Mann), Het teken van de hamster (Hugo Claus). Exhibition at the Belgisches Haus in Cologne.
  As a young artist Vanriet participated in the Menton Biennale and showed his work at Naviglio Gallery in Milan and Galerie Brusberg in Hannover. The Palais des Beaux-Arts (Bozar) in Brussels and the Kunstverein in Darmstad showed his Death in Venice series, while the Museum of Literature in The Hague showed his Mária Lécina.
  Vanriet ‘s poetry was published by Manteau. For the national Belgian radio broadcaster (BRT3), he also wrote a series of poems entitled Staat van Beleg (State of Siege), set to jazz music by Bob Porter.
  Various essays on poetry and contemporary arts for Volksgazet (newspaper) and interviews for weekly magazines such as Panorama and Vrij Nederland. He also edited a literary contribution from Belgium for prestigious Dutch monthly magazine Avenue.

• 1979
  Sao Paulo Biennale. Several shows in California, mostly at the Wenger Gallery in San Diego (later in Los Angeles).
  His work was included in the collections of the Museum of Art in San Diego, the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla, and the Hewlett Packard Corporation in Palo Alto.

• 1982
  Start of a collaboration with Isy Brachot Galleries in Brussels and Paris.
  The English art critic and poet Edward Lucie-Smith published a monography on Vanriet’s watercolours and the French inventor of Nouveau Réalisme Pierre Restany wrote the essay for the catalogue accompanying Vanriet’s first Paris show: L’état du siège du regard.

• 1984 Venice Biennale and shows at Wenger in La Jolla and William Sawyer in San Francisco.

• 1986
  Double exhibition at Isy Brachot, Brussels: Discours sur la Mythologie pour Travailleurs 1 & 2 (foreword by Flor Bex, Director of M HKA), followed by a curated selection at L’ Hippodrome, Centre d’ Action Culturelle in Douai, France. Covers for Houtekiet Publishers (till 1990).

• 1987
  Jan Vanriet started to design stage sets for Raamtheater, KVS Brussels, Geletterde Mensen and the international literary tours organised by Behoud de Begeerte (Madrid, Barcelona, Göteborg, London, Amsterdam and Aix-en-Provence).
  The newspaper De Morgen commissioned illustrations for their weekly essay supplement Zeno. The collaboration continued for more than 15 years. Publishers in the Netherlands and France (De Bezige Bij, Van Gennep, Balland, Le Seuil) requested to use his paintings for the covers of their novels.
  Vanriet created a mural for the De Brouckère Metro Station in Brussels: two walls, panels on metal, around 210 metres long. He also painted a mural environment (85 metres long) for Roularta Publishing House in Evere, Brussels.

• 1988
  Olympiad of Arts in Seoul (1988) after which the Seoul Museum of Contemporary Art acquired Vanriets large canvas Compte à régler for its collection.

• 1990
  Vanriet was awarded the Special Prize at the Seoul Art Festival, together with John Chamberlain and Mimmo Rotella.
  In between, Vanriet spent several months in New York in Bernar Venet’s Soho studio to prepare upcoming shows at the Wenger Gallery in Los Angeles. For the artist this marked a return to oil paint. Collaboration with Portnoy Gallery in New York.
  Commissions for portraits by New York lawyer Harry Torczyner, the Belgian Parliament, and in particular the Catholic University of Leuven (the ‘legendary’ rector Piet de Somer for the historic Ceremony Hall).
  A survey at De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam.

• 1992
  Jan Vanriet renewed his partnership with De Zwarte Panter Gallery in Antwerp.

• 1993
  Antwerp ‘93 (European Cultural Capital). The Elzenveld Art Centre inaugurated its gallery space with a large-scale exhibition of Vanriet’s recent work. This was not his only contribution to this festival year: he also painted the ceiling in the entrance of the newly restored Bourla Theatre and designed a stained glass for Antwerp’s City Hall.

• 1994
  Het betoverd domein (The enchanted domain), an integrated 110-metre-long mural for the new headquarters of Kredietbank in Brussels.
  A series of fifty portraits of his friends: A face is not a face at De Zwarte Panter Gallery. The Museum of Literature The Hague as Letterenhuis in Antwerp acquired several portraits in this show.

• 1995
  Volgens Johannes, thirty-five larger works on Hanji paper for which Benno Barnard wrote an epic poem published in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition at the Veranneman Foundation in Kruishoutem, where Pierre Soulages’s work was shown in parallel.
  The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, and Deutsche Bank, Royal Belge, Crédit Lyonnais and Zürich added works by Vanriet to their collection.
  The Stedelijke Prentenkabinet Antwerpen also acquired a selection of the preparatory studies for Volgens Johannes.

• 2000
  Café Aurora at CC Scharpoord, Knokke, organized by Lieven Storme (Art Concern). For the catalogue Stefan Hertmans provided an extended essay.

• 2001
  Vanriet was awarded the Van Acker Prijs in Bruges (like Hugo Claus, Frans Masereel, Roger Raveel before him). The award ceremony also marked the opening of his show The Traveller is Blind (De reiziger is blind – text by Jean Pierre Rondas) at the Belfry in Bruges.

• 2003
  Weekly column EenOog in Weekend Knack.
  That same year Hugo Claus wrote 25 poems for the book Zeezucht (commissioned by the cultural festival Literaal in Ostend, edition of 75,000 copies), which Vanriet illustrated with an equal number of small oil paintings.

• 2004
  Transport at the Lippisches Landesmuseum Detmold (Germany), paintings 1999 -2004.

• 2005
  Testamenta, 104 drawings inspired by stories from the Bible at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. A close collaboration between friend and colleague Karel Dierickx and Jan Vanriet resulted in 16 watercolours and two lithographies: Omgekeerde leugens (Reverse Lies).

• 2006
  Dichterdood (The Poet’s Death) at De Zwarte Panter accompanied by a catalogue including poems by Dutch writer and philosopher Maarten Doorman.

• 2007
  Start of an intensive collaboration with renowned Dutch author Cees Nooteboom, which led to the publication of two books, A Winterreise and Rode regen (Red Rain), and several covers for Suhrkamp Verlag; the original drawings were shown in the Hällisch-Fränkisches Museum of Schwäbish Hall in Germany.
  Vanriet wrote and illustrated the weekly column Joetoeb for DeMorgen Magazine and published a new book of poetry: Stormlicht.

• 2008
  Mark Ruyters, director of H Art Magazine, publishes Jan Vanriet, Parcours 1966–2008, a biographical approach to the artist’s work.

• 2009
  A selection of drawings at Literaturhaus Berlin and paintings at Ruth Leuchter Gallery Düsseldorf.

• 2010
  The Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp invited Jan Vanriet to ‘close’ the museum before a major renovation: Closing Time comprised a selection of masterpieces from the collection in confrontation with a retrospective selection of Vanriets own work.
  At the same time, the Plantin-Moretus Museum showed and acquired the series of watercolours De Groet (The Greeting).

• 2012
  Partie de Campagne, inspired by Jean Renoir’s film (1936), was shown at De Zwarte Panter Gallery; film director Marc Didden wrote an introduction for the catalogue published by Ludion Publishers.
  A selection of Vanriet’s newest poetry: Leegstand (De Bezige Bij).
  The exhibition Closed Doors opened at Roberto Polo Gallery in Brussels, Ceremony was shown at Wansink, Maastricht. Group show Wollust des Untergangs at Buddenbrookhaus, Lübeck.

• 2013
  Jan Vanriet completed a series of portraits of Jews who were deported from Malines to Auschwitz: Loss of Face was shown where the drama began, at the Dossin Barracks, now a museum, and lives on in an impressive book with texts by Stefan Hertmans and György Konrád. The British Museum, London, purchased a selection of portrait studies in watercolour. Small paintings on wood for Galerie Ronny Van de Velde: Museum To Scale 1/7 (at The Baker Museum, Florida, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels).

• 2015
  Museum shows in The Jewish Museum Moscow (Russian edition of the book Loss of Face) and The National Museum Gdansk (Song of Destiny). Opening of the extended Roberto Polo Gallery in Brussels with Vanriet: Vanity, the eponymous book written by British art critic Charlotte Mullins. Paintings included in the collection of Polin Museum, Warsaw. Murals at Craeyenhof, Zwijndrecht.

• 2016
  The Music Boy at The New Gallery Walsall (catalogue with essays by Andrew Graham-Dixon, Charlotte Mullins and Martin Herbert). The thematic show Painting
  After Postmodernism curated by Barbara Rose at Vanderborght in Brussels, Palacio Episcopal in Málaga and Reggia di Caserta (Napels).

• 2018
  Publication of Radeloos geluk (Desperate Happiness), ‘an egodocument’ nominated for the Bookspot Literature Prize in The Netherlands. The exhibition Ex Voto at De Zwarte Panter Gallery included the first version of the Antwerp Madonna. A stained glass for Hollands College in Louvain.

• 2019
  A new museum in Toledo, Spain, the Centro de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo de Castilla-La Mancha (Colección Roberto Polo) showed artwork by Schmidt-Rottluff, Pechstein and Kandinsky, as well as an ensemble of ten large paintings by Jan Vanriet. The Poëziecentrum published Kouwe Kleren (Cold Clothes), an extensive selection of Vanriet’s poetry.
  At The British Museum in London: Pushing Paper, a selection from the contemporary drawing collection (with Louise Bourgeois, David Hockney, Tracey Emin, Gerhard Richter, Philip Guston, etc).

• 2020
  Heldenleven (A Hero’s Life), gouaches and poems evoking the artist’s youth published by Harold Polis.
  Van Oorschot Publishers in Amsterdam asked Vanriet to illustrate Joseph Roth’s classic novel Radetzkymarch.
  Design of the Empress Theophano Prize for the prestigious award established by the Empress Theophano Foundation in Thessaloniki. Musician Daniel Barenboim was one of the first laureats.
  During the pandemic, the Colección Roberto Polo launched a virtual show on the internet: Jan Vanriet, Duelo Colectivo.

• 2021
  Vanriet’s own impressions of the pandemic: Pizza and The Death, poems and drawings (Van Oorschot Publishers)
  Collected Stories: the thirteenth show at De Zwarte Panter Gallery. The famous Polish poet Adam Zagajewski contributed an essay for the catalogue.

• 2022
  Misleading Sun opened at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki. It included highlights of the artist’s favourite themes and introduced paintings from Elegy, a new monumental series inspired by the Leningrad Blockade in 1941-1944 with an essay by German curator Martin Germann. One man show in Finnis Terrae, a multi-location art event in Antwerp organized by Galerie Geukens & Devil.

• 2023
  Brussels gallery Zwart Huis showed a large selection of the Leningrad paintings.

• 2021-2024
  During this period, the publication of a trilogy of novels, introducing the fictional characters of the painter Louis Zoethout and his friend the poet Boesmans, took up most of Vanriet’s attention. Borgerhoff & Lamberigts published Rovers, Bloot verder and Spijkers in de wolken.
  Portrait commissions for Antwerp University, the Episcopal Palace in Malines and Saint Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent.
  Breendonk Blauw at the Breendonk Memorial.

• 2026
  Regards pluriels about left-wing engagement in Belgian Art in the twentieth century at the Museum of Fine Arts in Mons (with Magritte, Frits Van den Berghe, Masereel, Bury, et al.) includes 14 Vanriet paintings.
  Gethsemane, Vanriet’s sixteenth solo exhibition at De Zwarte Panter Gallery. Another choice from this series will be shown at the Adornes Estate in Bruges.

Jan Vanriet lives and works in Antwerp. He is married to writer Simone Lenaerts, the couple have two sons and a daughter.