Philippe Vandenberg was born in Ghent in 1952. It is in the Museum of Fine Arts of his native city that his encounter with work by Bosch and Gustave Van de Woestijne sparks off his fascination with painting. In 1972 when he decides to devote himself full-time to the study of painting and in 1976 he graduates with a degree from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent.
Text and image have grown intimately entwined in Philippe Vandenberg's oeuvre.
On the occasion of his 1999 retrospective exhibition in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp, he writes On his way in a cage is a man, his hands red, an interim reflection on his oeuvre. In 2004 Ergo Pers published Painter's Exile in a bibliophile edition with the Letter to the Nigger text and 64 etchings, in a graphic design by Rein Ergo.

Exil de peintre, an artists' book with 64 etchings and a text by Belgian artist Philippe Vandenberg. Exil de peintre, is available in a limited edition of 33 copies.
Each book includes two volumes : a firtst volume with 53 etchings an an additional second volume with a suite of 11 echings, signed and numbered by Philippe Vandenberg.
Each book is signed by the artist in the colophon.

The etchings were done directly by the artist at the studio of Henrie Hemelsoet in Ghent.
Techniques used include softground etching, hardground etching, whiteground aquatint, sugar lift aquatint and others.
The entire edition is printed on Hahnemühle 150 g. Size 28 x 36 cms.
Exil de peintre is a realisation of Rein Ergo, Henrie Hemelsoet and Philippe Vandenberg.

I' was a painter as I was a child, for a long time.
For lack of a mother tongue, I took up painting to formulate life’s questions and demands.
But once the questions were asked, once the demands were expressed, where to find the answers?
And I became a painter of bottlenecks. A painter of exile. A painter of great crucifixions of bottlenecks within the canvas, lacerating the skin of the beautiful painting. Am I still innocent?'
...

Philippe Vandenberg, Letter to the nigger, 2004

Philippe Vandenberg - Artist in Residence - Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Gent (MSK Gent)
12 04 - 17 08 2008