Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

Jan Hoet (; 23 June 1936 – 27 February 2014) was the Belgian founder of

SMAK Smak ( sr-Cyrl, Смак; trans. ''The end time'') was a Serbian and Yugoslav band from Kragujevac. The group reached the peak of popularity in the 1970s when it was one of the most notable acts of the former Yugoslav rock scene. The band's l ...

(''Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst'' or Municipal Museum for Contemporary Art) in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Biography

Jan Hoet was born in

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

. Throughout his career, he was often referred to in the press as a former boxer (he pursued the sport in college) and several times expressed an admiration for

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is cons ...

. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he and photographer Rony Heirman made some comics together. His international reputation was first established by "Chambres d'Amis," an innovative exhibition he organized in Ghent in 1986. In that show, about 50 American and European artists were invited to create works for 50 private homes in Ghent, which were then opened to the public for several weeks. Subsequently, he managed several important exhibitions all over the world. Hoet curated

Documenta ''documenta'' is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. The ''documenta'' was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultura ...

IX in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

in 1992, presenting several hundred works by 190 artists from nearly 40 countries. Subsequently, he managed several important exhibitions all over the world. Willy Bosschem - Jan Hoet De Zee

Hoet served as the curator of the SMAK from 1975 until his retirement in 2003. As part of the 2000 "Over the Edges" exhibition in Ghent, he let artist

Jan Fabre Jan Fabre (born 14 December 1958) is a Belgian multidisciplinary artist, playwright, stage director, choreographer and designer. Conviction for sexual assault and harassment In September 2018, twenty former members of Fabre's performing ar ...

drape columns of a university auditorium in slabs of ham. After retiring, in 2003, he became artistic director for the museum

MARTa Herford MARTa Herford is a contemporary art museum in Herford, Germany. Building and history The idea for the museum formed in 2000, drawing from Herford's status as a German center of furniture and home furnishing production. The name ''MARTa'' is a ...

Herford Herford (; nds, Hiarwede) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is the capital of the district of Herford (district), Herford. Geography ...

(

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

) and collaborated with architect

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considered ...

on its design. The inaugural show in 2005 called “''My Private Heroes”'' was an eclectic mix of works by artists including

Marina Abramović Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, feminist art, the relationship between the performer and audienc ...

Chris Burden Christopher Lee Burden (April 11, 1946 – May 10, 2015) was an American artist working in performance, sculpture and installation art. Burden became known in the 1970s for his performance art works, including ''Shoot'' (1971), where he arranged ...

Gavin Turk Gavin Turk (born 1967) is a British artist from Guildford in Surrey, and is considered to be one of the Young British Artists.Tate Modern. (2009)'Pop Life: Art in a Material World' Retrieved 14 August 2012. Turk's oeuvre deals with issues of aut ...

Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al ...

and

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

as well as history paintings, ephemera and a yellow jersey worn by a

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

winner. On 17 June 2012 Jan Hoet collapsed at the

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. On 23 June 2012, while being repatriated to Ghent, Hoet suffered from

hypercapnia Hypercapnia (from the Greek ''hyper'' = "above" or "too much" and ''kapnos'' = "smoke"), also known as hypercarbia and CO2 retention, is a condition of abnormally elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the blood. Carbon dioxide is a gaseous pro ...

and he was being held in a coma at the hospital of

Soltau Soltau () is a mid-sized town in the Lüneburg Heath in the district of Heidekreis, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It has around 22,000 inhabitants. The city is centrally located in the Lüneburg Heath and is known nationwide especially for its touri ...

. Hoet was repatriated to Ghent. In January 2014 Hoet suffered a second heart attack. He died in a hospital in Ghent on 27 February 2014 and was buried in the Cemetery of Campo Santo.

Recognition

In 1992, a Belgian magazine named Hoet one of the 10 sexiest people in Belgium. At the news of his death, the Belgian prime minister

Elio Di Rupo Elio Di Rupo (; born 18 July 1951) is a Belgian politician who has served as the minister-president of Wallonia since 2019. He is affiliated with the Socialist Party. Di Rupo previously served as the prime minister of Belgium from 6 December 201 ...

tweeted Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that the Belgian art world “loses a father”. "He was invaluable," painter

Luc Tuymans Luc Tuymans (born 14 June 1958) is a Belgian visual artist best known for his paintings which explore people's relationship with history and confront their ability to ignore it. World War II is a recurring theme in his work. He is a key figure ...

said of Hoet, who bought his first work and was instrumental in making Tuymans a global name in contemporary painting.Raf Casert (February 27, 2014)
Belgian modern art director Jan Hoet dies at 77
''

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a List of communities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, city in western Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the M ...

''.

Bibliography

*"Your Own Soul: Ingrid Mwangi" by

Ingrid Mwangi Ingrid Mwangi (born 1975) is a German artist, of Kenyan-German descent. She works with photography, sculpture and in multimedia, performance, and installation art. In 2005, she co-founded ''Mwangi Hutter.'' Early life and education Ingrid Njeri ...

, Jan Hoet, and Gislind Nabakowski (Hardcover - 1 September 2003) *"Flemish and Dutch Painting: From Van Gogh, Ensor, Magritte, Mondrian to Contemporary Artists" by Rudi Fuchs and Jan Hoet (Hardcover - 15 June 1997) *"Bjarne Melgaard: Black Low" by Bjarne Melgaard, Jan Hoet, and Ann Demester (Hardcover - 2 March 2003) *"Positions In Art (Reihe Cantz)" by Chris Burden, Kiki Smith, James Turrell, and Jan Hoet (Paperback - 2 July 1995)

References

External links

Lambiek Comiclopedia article.
*
On "Chambres d'amis"
Una conferenza di Jan Hoet per il cors
History of exhibitions
MACBA (Barcelona), 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoet, Jan 1936 births 2014 deaths Belgian art curators Belgian male boxers Belgian comics artists Belgian philanthropists Belgian knights Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Museum founders 20th-century philanthropists