On their way are a bearded man with a staff and a lion. The undulating landscape they are heading through is suggested by a few vibrating pencil lines. Written above the twosome, are the words De leeuwenherder (The Lion Shepherd). It is one of the many mythical figures that appear in Philippe Vandenberg’s work in the second half of the 1990s. By introducing figures from art history, literature and the Bible, he denounces mankind’s perpetual state of greed, violence, oppression and abuse. The alternative is mobility. In his art, emotional and intellectual movement as well as social and political mobility, are symbolized by The Lion Shepherd and the many nomads wandering around. In perpetual motion, they move on, like the painter does, “in line with the motion of reality”.​

Philippe Vandenberg ’s (1952-2009) drawings and paintings strongly denounce humanity. They are moving, provocative and force us to reflect. The central theme is man’s struggle with himself and others, observed through the lens of cultural, political and social history. In Vandenberg’s art, this struggle is often critical, sometimes compassionate, but always imagined in rich colour and with a pinch of humour. ​

Since the founding of the Philippe Vandenberg Foundation in 2009, his work has been discovered across the globe. His art has been shown in solo exhibitions in Hamburg, New York, Paris, London and Seoul among others. In 2020, the first institutional exhibition in Belgium on Vandenberg since his death was held in BOZAR under the name Philippe Vandenberg. Molenbeek.​

In The Philippe Vandenberg Foundation generously keeps the legacy of Philippe Vandenberg mobile. The Foundation operates on national and international levels and has three objectives: to manage the artist’s estate and studio, to facilitate research into his oeuvre and to make his work more accessible in dialogue with artists, researchers, curators and the public. Around the year, they offer visits to his studio in Molenbeek.