Maurice Brams is a ‘taille directe’ sculptor. He carves his sculptures directly from his memory in the material without using models or maquettes, a direct approach as used in primitive art. He uses wood, marble, bronze, albaster, blue stone, french stone and plexiglass. His work can be subdivided in the following phases:
1966-1976: wood sculptures about mother and child;
1976-1982: marble-, bronze-, and wood sculptures about fertility;
since 1982 works about the evolutionism.
"The work of brams brings me the dualistic philosophy of plato in mind again: above the world of concrete things that arise and disappear, there is the world of forms or ideas. those are absolutely unique and unchageable and indicate the concrete existences, whose images they are a sense and meaning.
Brams work is both heavily influenced by the reality, because evolution, birth, fertility and fertilization are ongoing source of inspiration and his only real message. On the other hand he strives only after the world of ideas and forms prefect, who was the sole and necessary , and that, although still visible related to reality, this reality still transcend.
Opposite the multiplicity and particularity of things he places the unity and universality of his creations, opposite the randomness of things, the necessity of forms. In this sense, the artist places himself an impossible task and he defies the gods and in this sense, brams ' art is essentially utopian.
Universality is a key concept here. brams creates a design language of semiotics, which except a wonderful aesthetic experience especially brings a deep recognition in the viewer. Indeed, these works create their archetypal symbolism, undeniably the memory of an ancient human experience: constant evolution, are born and die, the panta rhei.
That form language, stripped of all anecdotal in great tension of surfaces. The shocking experiment is foreign to her. The paradox of this work is the strict and extremely personal originality of the sign language hand, facing the large recognition on the other.
Consciously I indicate brams' instruments with the terms "sign language" and "semiotica". His sculpture is essential character, link. it's externalization of idea, the driving spirit in matter, in an attempt to final synthesis . "
( I. Verheyen , president jacob smit museum , mol (be) )
maurice brams
born in 1938 in aarschot, belgium (be)
died in 2017 in turnhout, belgium (be)
lived in oud-turnhout (be)
worked in his studio at the company tuytelaers in ravels (be).
education
studies secondary teacher dutch, french, history.
exhibitions
in belgium (be):
1973 first exhibition with wooden sculptures in castle of horne, sint-truiden.
1986 exhibition of sculptures in marble and bronze.
solo exhibitions among others in:
antwerp, beerse, brussels, hingene-bornem, mol, mons, oostduinkerke, schelderode.
group exhibitions among others in:
antwerp, beerzel,blankenberge, brussels, brugge, ghent, hamme, hamme-waasmunster, knokke, liège, lier, kalmthout-kapellen, kasterlee, mol, waasmunster, willebroek.
in the netherlands (nl):
1987 first foreign exhibition at akzo organon in oss.
solo exhibitions among others in:
cadier en keer, maastricht, tllburg, the hague.
group exhibitions among others in:
amsterdam, cadier en keer, eck en wiel, ‘s-hertogenbosch, sittard.
furthermore abroad among others:
basel (ch), düsseldorf (de), luxembourg (lu), marbella (es), marq en baroeul (fr), paris (fr),
shetland-islands, (gb), le touquet (fr).
gallery 9 presents his work since 2014 in the gallery:
2019 winter exhibition in the galerie
2017 duo exhibition together with ineke van koningsbruggen in the gallery
2017 spring exhibition in the gallery
2017 winter exhibition in the gallery
2016 season’s holidays exhibitiion in the gallery
2016 summer exhibition in the gallery
2016 spring exhibition in the gallery
2015 summer exhibition in the gallery
2014 exhibition ‘6 positions concrete art’ in the gallery
2014 summer exhibition in the gallery
2014 presentation on kunstrai in rai, amsterdam (nl)
2014 jubilee presentation 25 years gallery 9 on kunstrai, amsterdam (nl)
2014 duo exhibition together with takshi suzuki in the gallery
2014 jubilee presentation 25 years gallery 9 on art breda, breda (nl)
2014 jubilee presentation 25 years gallery 9 on raw art fair, rotterdam (nl)
2014 jubilee exhibition 25 years gallery 9 in the gallery.
art fairs
the works of brams are presented at london art fair (gb), art fair new york (us), art fair strasbourg (fr), tefaf maastricht (nl), lineart ghent (be).
raw art fair 2014 in rotterdam (nl)
art breda 2014 in breda (nl)
kunstrai 2014 in amsterdam (nl).
collections
works of brams are represented in art collections in australia, belgium, germany, france, great-brittain, japan, luxembourg, the netherlands, spain, united states of america and switzerland.
commissions
works commisioned by mercator verzekeringen, kredietbank, vlaamse tennisvereniging, het volk en het laatste nieuws, gsi belgium-luxembourg.
publications
maurice brams beeldhouwer
by ivo verheyen and hans henderickx with foreword by els michielsen a publication of the gemeentelijk jakob smits museum mol and the vzw vrienden van het jsm2008 119 p., ills. sbn 978908205726, published on occasion of the exhibition beelden van brams (sculptures of brams) in the jsm from 21 juni till 14 augustus 2008 mbrams with pictures of joris luyten and w. lauwers n.y.32 p., ills.
