On the occasion of the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Palais des beaux-arts in Brussels  presents El Greco: Domenikos Theotokopoulos 1900, an exhibition of over 40 works by El Greco.

El Greco (1541 – 1614) was a painter, sculptor, and architect who lived in the period of the Spanish Renaissance. Born Domenikos Theotokopoulos in Crete, he became known in Italy as El Greco ("The Greek").

There is little documentary evidence about his background and early years. He began his career in a local artistic workshop in Crete that specialised in the production of icons. Crete at this time came under the control of the Republic of Venice , which led to an intensive artistic exchange. Many Greek artists travelled to Venice ; El Greco set out to try his luck there in 1567. In 1570 he moved to Rome , where he worked for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. In 1572 he was admitted to the Roman academy for painters, the Accademia di San Luca, and probably established a studio of his own, producing his first commissioned works. 

During his stay in Italy his painting style developed under the influence of Mannerism and the Venetian Renaissance. Michelangelo and Raphael were already dead, but their example left little scope for innovation and was oppressive for young artists. El Greco, however, determined to leave his own mark, stood up for his individual ideas, vision, and style. This attitude made him controversial: although he was a respected artist, he also came in for a lot of criticism. 

In 1577 El Greco moved to Toledo in Spain , where he was to live and work until his death. It was in Toledo that he received a number of his most important commissions and painted his most celebrated paintings. The years from 1596 to 1614 were a golden age for El Greco and his studio. He was at the height of his powers and carried out major commissions for a variety of religious institutions, such as the altarpiece for the Colegio de la Encarnación in Madrid . He remained active until his death in 1614.

Universally regarded today as one of the founders of the Spanish School of painting, El Greco has not, however, always enjoyed that lofty status: despite his successful career, his dramatic, expressionist style was viewed with mixed feelings by his contemporaries. Tastes, moreover, changed around the time of his death in 1614: Europe fell under the spell of the naturalism of the Caravaggesque style, which sought to depict reality as it was and was thus poles apart from El Greco's unique Mannerist talent. After his death El Greco's work soon went out of fashion and fell into obscurity. His art was suddenly rejected as old-fashioned.

Things only changed in the early 20th century, when the modern artistic avant-garde restored his reputation. This rediscovery was due to three key figures of the Spanish cultural scene of the time: the art historian Manuel Bartolomé Cossío (who published a monograph devoted to El Greco in 1908), the Marqués de Vega Inclán (who established a museum in his honour in Toledo in 1910), and the photographer Mariano Moreno.

El Greco: Domenikos Theotokopoulos 1900, curated by Ana Carmen Lavín Berdonces and José Redondo Cuesta, highlights the key role these three individuals played in the re-evaluation of El Greco's work around 1900. The exhibition also looks at the workings of his studio and offers a fascinating overview of El Greco's artistic development via a selection of outstanding paintings, including the Lágrimas de San Pedro and the stunning El Expolio. The highlight of the exhibition is El Greco's final series, El Apostolado (the twelve apostles), his artistic testament.

Palais des Beaux-Arts

rue Royale 10

1000 Brussels

Johann Sebastian Bach:

Fantasie & Fuge, BWV 537
Choral "O Mensch, bewein' dein' Sünde gross", BWV 622 (Das Orgel-Büchlein)
Choral "Komm, Gott, Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist", BWV 667
Trio super "Herr Jesu Christ, dich zu uns wend", BWV 655
Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, BWV 665
Präludium & Fuge, BWV 543
Triosonate Nr. 2, BWV 526
Choral "Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit", BWV 668
Fantasie & Fuge, BWV 542

Bernard Foccroulle, organ

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach: Sinfonia I, WFV 1/3, d minor

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach: Adagio und Fuge in d-moll für 2 Traversflöten und Streicher, Falck 65, d-moll, Concerto for 2 harpsichords and orchestra, Fk 46, E flat major

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Concerto for 2 harpsichords and orchestra, Wtq 46, F major

Johann Christian Bach: Symphony, op. 6/6, g minor

Andreas Staier, harpsichord
Christine Schornsheim, harpsichord
Concerto Köln

Beethoven: Symphony no. 6, op. 68, "Pastorale"
Debussy: La Mer
Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, suite no. 2

Wiener Philharmoniker
Lorin Maazel, conducto

The Vancouver Art Gallery has commissioned a large-scale site-specific installation by artist Ken Lum for display at the recently finished space, "Offsite" during the 2010 Winter Games. The artist's large sculptural work includes three scale replicas of squatters' shacks that once populated North Vancouver's shoreline.

Titled from shangri-la to shangri-la, Lum's rustic cabins resemble those of the Maplewood Mudflats squatters' community. Located along North Vancouver's intertidal zone from the early 20th century until 1971, this improvised village was home to a number of artists, writers and activists. For his project, Lum has recreated the homes of renowned writer Malcolm Lowry, artist Tom Burrows and Greenpeace leader Dr. Paul Spong. Propped up on stilts over the surface of the Offsite reflecting pool, the huts strike a sharp contrast with the surrounding downtown architecture. Located at the foot of the Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver's tallest building at the busy intersection of Thurlow and West Georgia Streets, these dissimilar structures evoke the character of the mudflat community and draw attention to the rapid advance of urban development in the Lower Mainland.

The work of Vancouver artist Ken Lum questions the relationship between modernism, mass culture and everyday experience, often blurring the boundaries separating high art and popular culture. Over the past twenty years, Lum's work has been presented in solo exhibitions throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He has also represented Canada at the Istanbul Biennial, São Paulo Biennial, Shanghai Biennale, Gwangju Biennale and Documenta.

Visceral Bodies presents the work of contemporary artists who investigate the human form, tracing artistic responses to scientific and medical innovations over the past two decades. Presented in conjunction with Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man, the two exhibitions trace the considerable history of artists using the body as a subject of physiological and anatomical study. The contemporary artists included in Visceral Bodies underscore how cultural perceptions of the human body have shifted from an anatomical fact to a perpetually evolving and increasingly artificial or fragmented form.

Artists such as Gabriel de la Mora, Wim Delvoye, Valie Export and Mona Hatoum borrow the tools of medical imaging to exteriorize what is internal. The exhibition also presents work by artists who imagine a fantastical future where the body has become fragmented and mutated.