Mark Brusse

Mark Brusse
Mark Brusse (Alkmaar, 1937) is an internationally known Dutch sculptor, ceramicist and painter who has lived in Paris since 1961. His father was the writer and journalist Marie Joseph Brusse (1873-1941) and four of his brothers have also made a name for themselves in Dutch public life. He spent his early childhood in Bergen on the Dutch coast. After his father’s death, the family moved to Nijmegen where during an unfortunate allied air raid in 1944 his stepfather’s house burned to the ground. Needless to say: this greatly impressed the young Mark. In 1958 Mark Brusse enrolls into the Academy in Arnhem (during which time he lived at Parkstraat 20). He develops aa friendship with Klaas Gubbels, Rik van Bentem, Ted Felen and with some of his friends starts the movement NADA, a collective with the aim of ‘making it’ in Amsterdam. They manage to capture the attention of some critics and Mark receives a grant from Maison Descartes to spend eight months in Paris. Once there he orbits into the circle of the Nouveaux Réalistes, led by Pierre Restany.In the following years he travels a lot, In New York (1965) he meets Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and others. He also visits Berlin (1970) Japan (1983), Korea (1983) and Benin. In Brusse’s work death and decay and their place in western culture, play a major part. His work has often been called ‘poetic’. A lasting influence on his work stems from his visits to Japan. Ceramics, stone, and assemblages of wood form the mainstay of his three dimensional work. He also paints on a monumental scale. One of Mark Brusse’s best known works is “Hommage a Piet Mondriaan” from1965 which can be viewed at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.His oeuvre has spread over the continents and can be found locally in the collections of Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Centre Pompidou, Parijs, Museum van Bommel van Dam in Venlo and CODA museum in Apeldoorn as well as important private collections. In 2019 a major retrospective exhibition of Brusse’s work was held at Museum het Valkhof, Nijmegen with the title: ‘Sometimes I wonder’.

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