New acquisitions and donations

M strengthens enduring ties with four contemporary artists

March 4, 2026

Installation view with ‘Institutionalized Dignity’ (1982-2024) by Sigefride Bruna Hautman, M Leuven, 2025, photo: We Document Art for M Leuven

In 2024-2025, Peter Morrens, Grace Schwindt and Sigefride Bruna Hautman each presented solo exhibitions at M Leuven. Jacques Van Lennep, under the alias NV Panneel, participated in the group exhibition ‘Alias’. Through targeted acquisitions and donations of their work, M and the City of Leuven are further strengthening their ties with these artists.

"Wanneer kunstenaars in M worden geïntroduceerd via boeiende tentoonstellingen, is het belangrijk dat hun werk ook een blijvende plek krijgt in de collectie. Zo kan het later opnieuw opduiken in andere constellaties en betekenissen blijven genereren. Dat versterkt de band tussen stad, museum en kunstenaars en laat de collectie van M organisch meegroeien." - Bert Cornillie, schepen van cultuur en voorzitter van de raad van bestuur van M Leuven

THE NEW ACQUISITIONS

Peter Morrens – purchase

‘White Out / Proper Museum’, 2024 - painting

‘White Out / Proper Museum’, Peter Morrens, 2024, © the artist, photo: artinflanders.be, Cedric Verhelst

This work offers a view of the sub-collection of large textiles, including carpets, housed in the M Leuven depot. In the run-up to his retrospective exhibition ‘OEEEEEEUUUUVVRE’ (11.10.2024–02.03.2025), Morrens conducted extensive research into M’s collection, its conservation methods, the depot environment and the specific nature of museum work in the collection care department. Numerous pieces from the collection were incorporated into the exhibition, and Morrens also created new works based on his research findings.

‘White Out / Proper Museum’ questions our social norms and the specific conditions under which artworks enter a collection. By explicitly integrating this theme into his artistic practice, Morrens engages in a dialogue with the ‘life’ of art objects within a museum context – a context in which his own work has also been present since 2021. The painting thus reflects not only the relationship between M as a collecting institution and Morrens himself, but also the broader relationship between museum, artist and artwork.

Peter Morrens – donation

'Turning Tables, Burning Labels', 2024 - folder with twenty-two studies and sketches
'Nawerking / dans son jus' (After-effect / in its juice), 2025 - painting
'Logosch', 2024 - painting

In his solo exhibition at M, Morrens presented both a retrospective overview of his oeuvre and recent work. He was also given the opportunity to create new artworks specifically for the exhibition. In addition to several works that explicitly engaged with the M collection and the museum, he created a large temporary mural in the final exhibition room, entitled ‘Turning Tables, Burning Labels’. He devoted considerable time to producing an extensive series of studies for this mural

Following the exhibition, Morrens donated several works to the collection of the City of Leuven. These donations relate thematically to the mural and, more broadly, to the exhibition as a whole.

This acquisition and donation of Peter Morrens’ work further expand the ensemble of his works that has formed part of the M collection since 2021.

Grace Schwindt - purchase

'A History of Touch', 2025 - nine-part sculpture, ceramic

In her multifaceted practice, Grace Schwindt combines disciplines such as drawing, performance, film, sculpture and painting. Her work explores the vulnerability of the human body, trauma, and the importance of touch and care in processes of healing. Drawing on personal and embodied experiences, she investigates how memories and histories are constructed, as well as the impact of the capitalist system on the body, the mind and collective memory.

In 2023, Schwindt was a guest thinker-in-residence at M. She immersed herself in the museum’s collection and operations and became fascinated by the care with which even severely damaged historical sculptures are treated. She perceived this attention as a parallel to her broader research into representations of the body in the Western world, where fragility and damage are often regarded as weaknesses. Schwindt, by contrast, approaches scars and wounds as sources of strength, renewal and transformation.

The exhibition ‘A History of Touch’ (14.02.25-16.11.25) brought together both existing work, and new pieces resulting from her research at M. The sculpture of the same name consists of nine parts and is based on the fragmented sculpture depicting ‘Christ on the Cold Stone’ (ca. 1500), which was excavated in Leuven near St Michael’s Church. Schwindt provided a separate glazed niche for each fragment. In doing so, she approaches the historical sculpture not as ‘damaged’, but as a complete group of objects that continue to exist in their present state. The work can be presented with or without one of the original leg fragments from ‘Christ on the Cold Stone’.

As part of this solo exhibition, M also produced a documentary about the research process and the creation of this artwork.

Sigefride Bruna Hautman - donation

'Geïnstitutionaliseerde Waardigheid' (Institutionalized Dignity), 1982-2024 - sculptural installation in polyester, wood, plaster, leather, paint and coconut fibre

This donation arose from the long-standing collaboration between Sigefride Bruna Hautman and M in the context of her eponymous retrospective exhibition (14.02.25-31.08.25). It follows ‘Zelfportret: Zelfspraak’ [Self-Portrait: Self-Speech] (1991), another sculptural work that was added to the M collection in 2024 through the Flemish Community Collection.

‘Institutionalized Dignity’ is a sculptural installation[HS1] that is characteristic of Hautman’s oeuvre and complements M’s strong collection of sculpture and contemporary installations. Working with a range of materials and techniques, Hautman creates poetic images that balance personal imagination with social themes and existential questions. Mannequins, human figures and elements drawn from everyday life frequently recur in her work.

In this installation, two leather figures sit opposite one another, hunched over a table beneath a framed relief of an eagle. In various mythological and political contexts, the eagle functions as a symbol of freedom, strength and pride. The work addresses the social pressure to conform to imposed values and raises the question of who determines which values are meaningful. Like the figures beneath the eagle, we too may be too quick to avert our gaze from the frameworks we adopt without reflection.

NV Panneel - donation

'Blanche-neige et les petits cochons' (Snow White and the Little Pigs), 1986-2023 - painting (diptych)

Jacques Van Lennep donated this work to the collection of the City of Leuven on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Alias’ (15.03.24-01.09.24), which revolved around fictional artists in recent Belgian and international art.

NV Panneel is an alias – and an anagram – of Van Lennep. Each of the four aliases devised by the artist represents a supposedly forgotten but talented one-hit wonder whose work he claims to have rediscovered. NV Panneel was active between 1985 and 1991 and created subversive artworks that challenged the popular aesthetics, visual strategies and exhibition conventions of that period. ‘Blanche-neige et les petits cochons’ [Snow White and the Little Pigs] is a striking example of this and was included in the exhibition ‘Alias’ and the accompanying publication of the same name.

The work is explicitly controversial and conveys a clear message about the regulation and censorship of art. At its first exhibition, the painting was removed by order of the police – an incident that Van Lennep deliberately documented. Following a later modification, in which the work was divided into two paintings and the most provocative image element was removed, the question remains whether it has lost its controversial force.