Medieval fetishist
Wherever art history leaves room for interpretation, my imagination stakes its claim. My fantasies, free associations, and assumptions stand alongside my historic reconstructions. They color my life and broaden my world: a second, imaginary world besides the “genuine” one.
That's the world I want to wander through. To experience another time and place by making that world tangible. So I work tirelessly on objects and artefacts...
Wherever art history leaves room for interpretation, my imagination stakes its claim. My fantasies, free associations, and assumptions stand alongside my historic reconstructions. They color my life and broaden my world: a second, imaginary world besides the “genuine” one.
That's the world I want to wander through. To experience another time and place by making that world tangible. So I work tirelessly on objects and artefacts that might belong to such a world. Currently, that world is based on medieval art, saturated by Catholicism and richly decorated objects.
But I'm not trying to recreate an era. I'm creating my own world. I am, after all, a contemporary artist.
Testimonials:
“Beautiful and ghastly at the same time. Broszat steers a course between the contemporary and the historical. Intriguing images are created, complex and unexpectedly opulent.”
Benno Tempel - Director Gemeentemuseum The Hague
“With his brush, Niels Broszat conjures up valuable symbols and iconographic characters from the rich clerical and pictorial traditions of Christianity (saving them from obscurity) and arranging them into new, generous rhyme schemes.
Indeed, a keeper of all valuable spiritual (practice) materials, and, simultaneously, a providential artiste/artist in the contemporary discourse.”
Marc Mulders - Artist
"Seeing his utterly modern constructions, you might not know that Niels Broszat has taken a long hard look at medieval art. But just behind the surface is an idea of painting as spirit, as medium, as icon."
Benjamin Moser - Biographer Susan Sontag and Clarice Lispector
Niels Broszat
Hortus conclusus 2019 | 100 x 100 cm. Acrylic paint, textile paint, oil paint and oil chalk on cotton
The visual language of the Middle Ages
The visual language of the Middle Ages is so powerful and intriguing. Niels Broszat shows you why he is inspired by an era long gone and how he manages to use this language to produce contemporary art.
EXHIBITIONS
SOLO
2016
Onorthodox | Ikonenmuseum, Kampen the Netherlands
2014
Icons | Museum for Religious Art, Uden the Netherlands
2012
Kunsthal Light #6 | KUNSTHAL, Rotterdam the Netherlands
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GROUP
2019
Sign of the Times | Museum Jan Cunen, Oss the Netherlands
2014
Royal awards for Painting | Royal Palace, Amsterdam the Netherlands
2013
Kanaalwerken | Gemeentemuseum Helmond, Helmond the Netherlands
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WORKS IN COLLECTIONS
Benetton
Claudia Sträter
Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar - the Netherlands
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PUBLICATIONS
AWARDS
2014, Royal Awards for Painting
2012, Open call for Kunsthal Light#6 - Kunsthal Rotterdam
2008, Buning Brongers Prize
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Niels Broszat’s career took flight right from the start. His graduation show in 2007 at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague got noticed by the well-respected Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, who published an article on his installation; Broszat was nominated for the Young Talent Award hosted by Kunstbeeld; the Gemeentemuseum The Hague selected his work for their biennial exhibition (best of graduates) and he won the Buning Brongers Award. Gallery Cokkie Snoei (Rotterdam) began to represent him, showing his work at numerous art fairs and gallery exhibitions. In 2011 Broszat left the gallery to take management of his career into his own hands. From that point on he collaborated with various galleries, artist initiatives, companies and museums to exhibit and sell his art. During that time, Broszat also stopped making his well-known flower still lifes to explore new possibilities within his art. His art matured and began to draw more attention. In 2012 he won Kunsthal Light #6, which awarded him a solo exhibition at the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam. That year Broszat began work on a series of paintings based on Orthodox icons. These paintings became successful, and collectors looking to buy his icons were waitlisted. In 2014 he won the Royal Award for Modern Painting and several museums and institutions exhibited these remarkable icons.
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