Thijs Dekeukeleire holds PhDs in History and Art History, specialising in 19th-century Belgian visual arts. He obtained his doctorate from Ghent University and the University of Antwerp with a cultural-historical study of the transformation of the nude genre in the fin-de-siècle.
Thijs has taught at KASK Ghent and has worked in the cultural heritage sector, focusing on translating research projects for a public audience. Currently, at Musea Brugge, he is researching the international careers of Bruges Academy of Fine Arts alumni in the long 19th century. He spent time in Rome on a research grant awarded by the scientific council of the Academia Belgica.
He curated the exhibition 'Strike a Pose: Nineteenth-Century Academic Nudes in Ghent Collections' (VANDENHOVE, 2020) and is co-curating the large-scale queer fine arts exhibition at the MSK Ghent (2027). His work has been published in Art History and Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, among others, and he was co-editor of the book Male Bonds in Nineteenth-Century Art.
Dekeukeleire, Thijs en Marjan Sterckx. ‘Scandal and censorship: Controversial nudes at the triennial Belgian Salon.’ (in voorbereiding)
Dekeukeleire, Thijs. “Odevaere in Rome: Over leerlingen, meesters en de lokroep van het buitenland.” Musea Brugge Magazine 44 (oktober 2024): 9-12.
Dekeukeleire, Thijs. “Movement, muscle, matter: Jef Lambeaux’s wrestling groups of the 1880s and 1890s.” In Energetic bodies: Sciences and aesthetics of strength and strain. Onder redactie van Thomas Moser en Wilma Scheschonk, 123-141. De Gruyter, 2022.
Dekeukeleire, Thijs, Henk de Smaele en Marjan Sterckx, reds. Male Bonds in Nineteenth-Century Art. Leuven University Press, 2021.
Dekeukeleire, Thijs. “The struggle is real: The wrestling groups of the antagonist sculptors Lambeaux and Van der Stappen.” In Male Bonds in Nineteenth-Century Art. Onder redactie van Thijs Dekeukeleire, Henk de Smaele en Marjan Sterckx, 247-263. Leuven University Press, 2021.
Dekeukeleire, Thijs. “Bonds, bounds, and beyond: Dalou’s monument to fraternity, and homosociality in nineteenth-century art.” In Male Bonds in Nineteenth-Century Art. Onder redactie van Thijs Dekeukeleire, Henk de Smaele en Marjan Sterckx, 17-48. Leuven University Press, 2021.
Dekeukeleire, Thijs. “The perception of men’s intimacy in the fin de siècle: A consideration via Delville’s The School of Plato.” Art History 43, nr. 1 (februari 2020): 154-75.
Dekeukeleire, Thijs. “Coup d’oeil sur le carnet du voyage au Congo belge d’Arsène Matton.” Le Courrier du Musée L 49 (maart-mei 2019): 11-13.
Dekeukeleire, Thijs. “Reflecties op een queer kunstgeschiedenis: Queer British Art, 1861-1967.” Historica 2 (2018): 39.
Dekeukeleire, Thijs. “Constantin Meunier (1831–1905) retrospective (Review of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Exhibition).” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 14, nr. 3 (2015).
Dekeukeleire, Thijs. “Tussen naakt en bloot: Constantin Meuniers Grote Mijnwerker en het negentiende-eeuwse mannelijke naakt.” Article: Studiarttijdschrijft, nr. 14 (2015): 10-13.
Dekeukeleire, Thijs. “Masculine / Masculine (Review of the Musée d’Orsay Exhibition).” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 13, nr. 1 (2014).
