The Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (commonly abbreviated as S.M.A.K., translated as City Museum for Contemporary Art) is a relatively new museum located in Ghent

Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, and is renowned both for its permanent collection (Karel Appel

Karel Appel

Christiaan Karel Appel was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s...

, Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon (painter)

Francis Bacon , was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon's painterly but abstract figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds...

, Panamarenko

Panamarenko

Panamarenko is a prominent assemblagist in Belgian sculpture. Famous for his work with airplanes as theme; none of which are able nor constructed to actually leave the ground....

, Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

, etc.) and for its provocative exhibitions.

The new museum opened to the public on 7 May 1999. The collection concentrates on international developments in art after 1945, and was based upon works collected by the Contemporary Art Museum Association (created on 8 November 1957 at the instigation of Karel Geirlandt) and the Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst (set up in 1975 as the first Belgian museum devoted to contemporary art, housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, with Jan Hoet

Jan Hoet

Jan, Knight Hoet is the founder of SMAK in Ghent, Belgium.-Biography:Jan curated Documenta IX in Kassel in 1992...

 appointed as director).
After Jan Hoet

Jan Hoet

Jan, Knight Hoet is the founder of SMAK in Ghent, Belgium.-Biography:Jan curated Documenta IX in Kassel in 1992...

 retired from the museum on December 1, 2003, Peter Doroshenko

Peter Doroshenko

Peter Doroshenko is the Executive Director at the Dallas Contemporary, Texas, United States.- Life and career :...

 was in charge. After a trial period of one year he was dismissed. The dismissal of Doroshenko caused much commotion. Artists and curators headed by Luc Tuymans

Luc Tuymans

Luc Tuymans is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters working today. His signature figurative paintings transform mediated film, television, and print sources into examinations of history and memory.-Life:Tuymans...

 feared for the future and independence of the museum. A petition was handed to the Chairman of the Board of Directors; culture vessels Sas Van Rouveroij. The dismissal was not reversed, but there were some changes in the organizational structure of the museum. Thus, Jan Hoet gave up his seat on the board of directors. Peter Doroshenko went to the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art

The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art is an international centre for contemporary art located on the south bank of the River Tyne alongside the Gateshead Millennium Bridge in Gateshead, North East England, United Kingdom...

 in Gateshead. He then became artistic director of the Pinchuk Art Centre in the central European city of Kiev

Kiev

Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

, Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 and is now at Dallas Contemporary, Texas.
Current directors are Philippe Van Cauteren (art director) and Sven Jacobs (business director)

External links

• Official website (in English, Dutch and French)