Denyse Willem
Denyse Willem (Denise,Yvonne,Victoire, Anna Willem)
Born at Blegny near Liège, Belgium in 1943 - Studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Liège. Works and lives in Brussels since 1972..
''I want to interpret in my paintings, the experience of being a woman.. Men have traditionally painted women as submissive or available. I give them a different presence: my women are active. They are not merely objects. I like to depict the way men and women look at one another.'' Denyse Willem, *The strength to believe in it* – *Arts Antiques et Auctions*, Brussels, No. 351-2004, p. 92.[1]
Early Works - Isy Brachot (1964-1973)
In this first period Denyse Willem used three techniques: engraving, drawing and gouache. To express herself, she combined the power of nature with that of women. The man symbolically takes the form of a bird opposite the woman, the object of desire.
The mechanical bird 1974 - Gouache 38 x 28 cm - private collection.
In 1967 she showed some drawings at the Gallery Isy Brachot in Brussels. The gallery agreed to show the artist in its new space or emerging artist. She exhibited at the gallery in 1968, 1969 and 1970 and achieved her first breakthrough in the art world.
Lucien Bilinelli Gallery(1976-1993)
The partnership between Denyse Willem and Lucien Bilinelli marked a massive turning point in Willem's career. Supported by Lucien Billinelli she shifted from works on paper to monumentel canvas formats influenced by fierce feminist commentary.
La duchesse exige 1979 - acrylic on canvas, 130 x 160 cm. - Collection La Boverie, musée des beaux arts de Liège.
From 1982, Denyse Willem also devoted herself to watercolor painting and made several thematic series. A new man appears idealized and is given an important place in her work: Fairy Tales (1983) - Interiors-Interiors (1985-86) - Vertical Landscape (1988-1989) - La Mort (1989). These are burlesque stories whose mise-en-scene is reminiscent of the art of comic strips.
Little Red Riding Hood leading the wolf out of the woods 1985- watercolor 56 x 76 cm.- private collection.
Self Management (1993- 2010)
In 1993 Denyse Willem left her partner's gallery and organized exhibitions at various contemporary galleries. She continued to make series of watercolors in which she humorously tackling men's sex and the good taste of the bourgeoisie: Sex Men (1993-1995) - Les Marquises (1997-1999). She also returned to the question of nature in danger in the series: Cut Wood (1993-1996)
The Marquesas, The dance Lesson, 1996 - watercolor 56 x 76 cm - private collection. She also returned to large-scale compositions in 2003 and 2007. The human relations depicted became more sensual in a climate of harmony. The introduction of androgyny in her work reduced the tension between sexes.
The three Graces, 2007- acrylic on canvas, 200 x 160 cm. - private collection.
In 2013, following the passing of several sponsors, Denyse Willem gave up painting to focus on the management of her collections. In 2023, she returned to painting with a new series of watercolor on the ecological change of life in the oceans. In 2025 she completed the large-format painting 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 2025- acrylic on canvas, 190 x 173 cm. - private collection.
Influences and style
Feminism - The student protest of "May 68" led woman to become aware of their subordinate role in the patriarchal society. It marked the beginning of modern feminism. Various feminist organizations took shape, the most important of which originated in Paris in 1970 - The liberation Movement for Women. (Journal Essentiel - Mai 68: La place des femmes - published June 22,2018
To realize her feminist vision Denyse Willem developed her own symbolic pictorial language. A language that draws inspiration from classical mythology, Christian iconography and fairy tales.
"Denyse Willem's painting is a theater of desire,a realm of multiple scenes where love and violence, life and death, woman and man stand side by side, gaze at one another, and confront each other, drawing upon classical mythology, history, fairy tales, and the myth of modern existence"[2]
She developed an unique personal style that conforms to no laws of human anatomy inspired by Late-Renaissance Mannerism. The symbolic distortions of the human body radiate an individual presence of strength and determination. She also doesn't use classic perspective but develops her own theatrical compositions.
"Stories we know, which Denyse Willem transforms, diverts, inverts, and caricatures. Each element has a signification, nothing is gratuitous, everything contributes to this theatrical fresco of desire and violence, of the difficulty of living, of the thirst for freedom and love despite the weight of history and society."[3]
"Once upon a time, there was a female painter who stuck a pictorial pact with her viewer. She asked him too believe in her dreamlike universe-her fairy tales-where Alice in Wonderland, disguised as flighty young women, tormented and bewitched other women, other girls, and men who where often absent or transformed into bears, wolves, lustful stuffed animals, deformed small children, tusk-less blue elephants, flayed puppets, gnome facing castration, or androgynous children. In this universe, age-old fantasies metamorphose to give birth to two utopian figures: the new Adam-the fragile man- and the new Eve, a woman who sheds the trappings of the 'femme fatale', of flesh to be consumed, or of the martyr, in favor of an identity as an active, free young woman-often depicted alongside her double, her mirage image, or her radiant shadow."[4]
| Personal Exhibitions | |
| 1965 | Apollinaire Gallery, Stavelot, Belgium |
| l'Etuve Gallery, Liège | |
| Piranèse Gallery, Liége | |
| 1968 | l'Etuve Gallery, Liège |
| Rotonde du Casino de Spa | |
| 1969 | Isy Brachot Gallery, Brussels |
| Cercle Royal des Beaux-Arts, Liège | |
| Galerie Latina, Palma de Mallorca, Spain | |
| l'Etuve Gallery, Liège | |
| 1970 | Isy Brachot Gallery, Brussels |
| 1972 | Ippa Bank, Liège |
| l'Essor Gallery, Huy, Belgium | |
| 1973 | Philippe Demoulin Gallery, Liège |
| 1974 | Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands |
| Art Club Gallery, Antibes, France | |
| 1981 | Del Naviglio Gallery, Milan, Italy |
| 1982 | Lucien Bilinelli Gallery, Brussels |
| 1983 | Lucien Bilinelli Gallery, Brussels |
| Art Basel 14'83 - Bilinelli Gallery - One Woman Show - Switzerland | |
| Peer Gallery, Maastricht - Netherlands | |
| 1984 | Nadia Kamenev gallery, Liège (etchings) |
| Del Naviglio Galllery, Milan, Italy | |
| Art Basel 15'84 - Bilinelli Galllery -One Woman Show - Switzerland | |
| 1985 | Lucien Bilinelli Gallery, Brussels |
| Art Basel 16'85 - Bilinelli Gallery - One Woman Show - Switzerland | |
| De Zwarte Panter Gallery, Antwerp | |
| 1986 | Art Basel 17'86 - Bilinelli Gallery - One Woman Show - Switzerland |
| 1987 | Cirque Divers Gallery, Liège |
| 1992 | De Zwarte Panter Gallery, Antwerp |
| Cirque Divers Gallery, Liège | |
| 1995 | "220 ans: anniversary of the 'Royal Academy of Fine Arts Liège' Cirque Divers Gallery, Liège |
| Lineart Art Fair, Ghent - Ventuno Gallery, One Woman Show. | |
| Mirano Continental, Brussels | |
| 1996 | Ziggourat Gallery, Brussels |
| 1998 | Claude André Gallery, Brussels |
| 2000 | Georges Uhoda Gallery, Liège |
| L'Enfer Gallery, Brussels | |
| 2002 | "Eros and Thanatos",IKOB, Eupen Belgium |
| 2003 | Del Naviglio Gallery, Milan, Italy |
| 2004 | "Watercolors"Mineta Move Gallery, Brussels |
| MAMAC (Modern and Contemporary Art Museum (La Boverie) Liège - Retrospective Exhibition | |
| 2005 | "The Marquesas", Théâtre du Méridien, Brussels |
| 2006 | "Paintings and Drawings", Mineta Move Gallery, Brussels |
| 2012 | "Imaginary Worlds", Mineta Move Gallery, Brussels |
| 2013 | Art Cologne, 2013, Del Naviglio Gallery |
| 2023 | "Re-creation", Mineta Art House, Brussels |
| 2026 | "The power to believe in it", Mineta Art House, Brussels |
| Group Exhibitions (Selection) | |
| 1963 | Watteau Price - Royal Circle of Fine Arts, Liège |
| 1965 | May Fair - Art Wallon Museum, Liège |
| 1970 | Biennial of Graphic Art, Cracovie, Poland |
| 1972 | Art Wallon, Fine Arts Museum, Mons, Belgium |
| 1974 | 10th International Biennal of Fine Art, Menton France |
| 1977 | Traveling Quadrennial of Young Artist from Liège (Liège, Namur, Mons) |
| 1978 | Belgian Art Prize - Bozar Brussels (Winner) |
| 1979 | IX International Painting Prize, Knokke- Heist, Belgium |
| 1980 | Woman Painters, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Charleroi, Belgium |
| European Painting Prize, Ostend, Belgium | |
| Anto-Carte Prize - Bozar (Winner), Brussels, Belgium | |
| 1982 | European Painting Prize Ostend, Belgium |
| Six Contemporary Artists from Liège, Archetectural Museum Liège | |
| Belgian Sonderschau, Art Basel 14'83, Switzerland | |
| 1984 | 'De Brakke Grond', Flemish Cultural Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| 'Terre des Arts', Paris, France | |
| 'Sex Female - Occupation Artist', Nicholas Treadwell, Denne Hill, UK | |
| 1985 | Hollandhaus, Winterthur, Switzerland |
| 1986 | Legacy Paul Dony, Museum of Walloon Art, Liège |
| 1987 | Art Brussels, Bozar, Brussels |
| 1988 | "Dis-moi qui est la plus belle?" - Cultural Center Botanique, Brussels |
| "Visages", Saint Georges Museum, Liège | |
| 1991 | "Blind Navigator" The heritage of surrealism - Contemporary Art, Bergen, Norway |
| 1994 | "Der Ideen, Bilder und Objecte von Martin Schwarz",Kunstkammer Bartenstein, Germany |
| 1995 | "220 years", anniversary of the Academy of Fine Arts, Liège |
| "18 ans du Cirque Divers", MAMAC (Boverie),Liège, Belgium | |
| 1998 | "Féminin-Féminin", Musée de l'Erotisme, Paris, France |
| "Bruxelles 2000, désert culturel", Galerie de l'Enfer, Brussels | |
| 2001 | "Passages", MAMAC (Boverie), Liège |
| 2002 | "Vanité des Vanités", serial exhibition, Koma Art Center, Mons, Belgium |
| "A selection of the cabinet of ideas, Martin Schwarz Collection", Barenstein Castle, Deutschland. | |
| "Phase Two- implementation" La Galerie, Brussels | |
| 2003 | "Vanités des Vanités", Cultural Center, Tournai, Belgium |
| "Crêpage de chignons", Nei Licht and Dominique Lang Gallery, Dudelande, Luxembourg | |
| Art Collection, IKOB Museum, Eupen, Belgium | |
| 2004 | "An enthusiast's chalet", Chalet de la Haute Nuit, Brussels |
| 2005 | "Vanité des Vanités", Cultural Center Huy, Belgium |
| "At the house of", Chalet de la Haute Nuit, Ecaussines, Belgium | |
| "Art and the city",Mineta Move, Art Istanbul, Turkey | |
| 2006 | "Little Red Riding Hood", Albert Marinus Foundation, Brussels |
| 2007 | "Philippe Vosges, mountain collector", Chalet de la Haute Nuit - Arte Coppo, Verviers, Belgium |
| "Babel, turning the tongue over seven times in one's mouth" Koma Art Center, Mons, Belgium | |
| "Do you see nothing coming?, Lanchevelichi Museum, La Louvière, Belgium | |
| "Time for a tour - an overview", Koma Art Center, Mons, Belgium | |
| 2008 | "War, the tower of strength", Koma Art Center, Mons, Belgium |
| "IKOB Collection,selected works", IKOB Museum, Eupen, Belgium | |
| "The grip of gender", Lanchelevichi Museum, La Louvière, Belgium | |
| "Sex Men", Libertine Gallery, Brussels | |
| "From the angel's leap to the angel's gift", Chalet de la Haute Nuit, Dudelange, Luxembourg. | |
| 2009 | "After Twilight", Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany |
| 2011 | "Feuilles Intimes", Mineta Move Gallery, Brussels |
| 2014 | "Academics Landscape", Mathilde Hatzenberger Gallery, Brussels |
| "Oseros", Hotel Amour, Mathilde Hatzenberger Gallery, Paris, France | |
| 2016 | "In the woods, under the sea", Grand Atelier S, Vielsalm, Rencheux, Belgium |
| 2018 | "Parochial Mentality", Daily-Bul & Co, La Louvière, Belgium |
| "Babylon's Burning", Hôte Gallery, Brussels | |
| 2019 | "Critical Inventory", IKOP Museum, Eupen, Belgium |
| 2024 | "Desiring connections", Chateau d'Ursel, Hingene, Belgium |
| 2025 | "Galerie de l'Enfer", Hôte Gallery, Brussels |
| "About epic myths", Nosbaum Reding Gallery, Brussels | |
| 2026 | "The Mask and the Arrow", 50th anniversary, Koma Art Center, Mons, Belgium |
| "Hair and other body hair, all matted together", Cultural Center Trois-Ponds, Belgium |
References
- ↑ "Magazine voor Kunst, Antiek en Veilingen | COLLECT Arts Antiques Auctions" (in Nederlands). Retrieved 2026-07-07.
- ↑ Sarlet, Claudette (Correspondance - Hispanic-Belgian Magazine - Number 5 - 1996-1997). Erotismos, Erotismes [Erotismes] (in French) (ISSN : 1130-8664 ed.). Caceres -Spain: University Extramadura and Belgian French Communnity. pp. Correspondance 168- 173. Check date values in:
|date=(help)CS1 maint: Date and year (link) CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) Search this book on
- ↑ Safin-Crahay, M-F (April 2004). Denyse Willem (in French). Brussels: Labor (published April 30, 2004). p. 5. ISBN 2-8040-1931-4.CS1 maint: Date and year (link) CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) Search this book on
- ↑ Flem, Lydia (2004). Le pacte pictural, cahiers international du Symbolisme - Number 107-108-109? 2004 page 129 - ISSN 0008-0284 [International Notebooks of Symbolism] (in French) (1ST ed.). Geneva Switzerland: LE CIEPHUM. p. 129.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link) Search this book on
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