From 11 April to 30 August 2026, A Red that Sings at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) unfolds as an exploration of colour as an autonomous force within Belgian modernism. Featuring works by James Ensor, Rik Wouters and Jules Schmalzigaug, the exhibition examines how these artists infused colour with an almost musical intensity. Vermilion reds, fiery yellows and richly saturated blues no longer serve as details within a composition, but become the composition itself.

Among the works featured in the exhibition is Chrysanthemums by Rik Wouters, from The Phoebus Foundation collection. The painting is bathed in a glow of saturated pigments, in which the flowers seem to flicker between form and movement. As is often the case in Wouters’ work, it is the red accents above all that guide the viewer’s eye across the canvas, not as ornament, but as a force that gives the composition its rhythm and breath.