In 1977, there were two simultaneous exhibition in the
Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven and the
Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht, in the Netherlands, with mainly conceptual work. He is a conceptual artist with respect in Europe. In that time, the Dutch
Ger van Elk and
Jan Dibbets are also important as European conceptual artists and
Joseph Kosuth is a big name in
New York City. From the mid-1970s Danny Matthys created the development of artistic training at the Urban Arts Institute in
Ghent. Given the many winners in several national art competitions it was quite valued. His partner there was Eric De Volder, a locally very famous Flemish experimental theater maker. It was a successful educational experiment that was closely linked to the brand new Flemish Ministry of Culture and Flemish Affairs, a forerunner of the current Flemish Culture Ministry. From the 1980s, Matthys uses more traditional techniques.
Assemblage (art) on the basis of strange antique photo series,
collage photo mozaiec and oil painting do their entry in his oeuvre.
Australia In the late 1980s, Matthys made several trips to Australia. He has seriously considered emigrating. He has had exhibitions in, among others, the Art Gallery of
New South Wales, together with the starting up
Wim Delvoye and created projects with the Australian film - composer
Peter Best. He has also worked on the old and the new art of
Indigenous Australians. He shares experience with Flemish - Belgian dr. Georges Petitjean, who as curator of the in
Utrecht, Netherlands, curated a number of exhibitions in which Indigenous Australian and European art were included. However, several serious setbacks in the private atmosphere forced Danny Matthys finally to return to
Europe.
Art Trip He later reworks his former
collage and even
Polaroid art - series with a very personal pointillist technique, in which he has owned several old and modern
aboriginal - techniques. Since the early 1990s, he started with what is still best described as
Mosaic or monumental 'tile fragments-
Mosaic'. This process also makes a connection with his older monumental photo -
collage - work and his more recent pointillistic method. It gives a strong sense of indestructible timelessness. His early
video from the 1960s and early 1970s was restored and better protected from the ravages of time by Argos Foundation in Brussels, with the support of the
Flemish Community Curriculum His work is part of several museum collections such as the
Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp and many private collections in Europe and abroad. Danny Matthys is today a major name in the Flemish "Art - lending " project. Matthys discontinued a few years ago a rich career as a lecturer in art education. He was co-founder and professor of the Department
Mixed Media within the KASK (art academy) of
Hogeschool Gent. On the left front of the
SMAK in Ghent is a huge work of him, made up of dozens of life-sized busts in pigmented concrete that is quite indestructible fixed in front of the famous museum. The work was previously conceived in an impressive horizontal drafting. Founding SMAK Director and Curator of
Documenta IX in
Kassel in 1992.
Jan Hoet wanted ultimately to hang it on the museum left frontwall.
Documenta 14 His well-known conceptual photo work 'Brabantdam 59, Downstairs-Upstairs' of 1975, part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp
M HKA, was loaned for a long term at the
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST) and was selected for the
Fridericianum during the
Documenta 14 2017 in the
German Kassel.
Documenta is the most important international contemporary art manifestation worldwide.
Sports, study and training In his youth, Matthys was a gifted
cyclist in the category of 'promises', together with
André Dierickx, which later won famous classics such as the
La Flèche Wallonne, but a very serious accident during the last years of his humanities studies in Ghent and a long rehabilitation, gave his life a strong new direction. Matthys first studied Textile Design at the
Hogeschool Gent and then at both of the School of Arts and Architecture and the
Hogeschool Gent completed higher art formation and training in the monumental arts. Famous names from his professional relations are
Hugo Debaere(† 1994),
Roger Raveel, Marthe Wery,
Jan Vercruysse,
Jan Fabre,
Joseph Beuys(† 1986) and Nick Ervinck. ==References, sources and external links==