Beyond the Canon: A Digital Art Historical Approach to the International Circuit of Belgian Modern Art Exhibitions in the First Half of the Twentieth Century.

When you look at the numerous Belgian modern art exhibitions that took place abroad and on international platforms such as International Expositions and World Fairs in the period between roughly 1910 and 1958, it is striking to see that Belgium in general was represented by artists who today receive little or no attention from scholars and art professionals. It concerns male and female artists whose work has shifted to the margins of art history and/or lies dormant in museum depots because it falls outside the conventional premises of modern art history and/or because of a lack of information. These artists nonetheless played an important role in the international distribution and development of (Belgian) modern art. Therefore, the research project wants to map and analyze the international circuit and representation of Belgian art in the first half of the twentieth century through the creation of a large-scale database and the application of data tools that will allow a macro and micro analysis. The aim is not so much to reposition artists or to raise their status, but to open up new perspectives on their work and canonization mechanisms, and, in doing so, to draw attention to a less studied institutional aspect of modern art history in which the fine arts, economy and politics converge.