At Voorlinden, Nick Cave (1957) will have his first solo museum exhibition with his series The Devil – A Life. The Australian artist is primarily known as a musician but studied visual art in his earlier years. In this series, Cave narrates the life of the devil, from his birth to his death, through seventeen hand-painted ceramic figures. Museum Voorlinden has acquired the entire series and is proud to exhibit them from 14 December 2024.

Nick Cave’s The Devil – A Life (2020-24) is a series of glazed ceramic figurines depicting the life of the Devil in 17 stations, from innocence through experience into confrontation of our mortality. Nick Cave was inspired by Staffordshire flatback figurines, which became popular mantelpiece decorations in the Victorian period. The series is Cave’s first major body of visual work, culminating in his first solo museum exhibition.

What started as a desire to create a single small devil figure as a vehicle for an intense red glaze became a journey towards some kind of absolution from a series of shattering events. — Nick Cave

Nick Cave’s The Devil – A Life (2020-24) is a series of glazed ceramic figurines depicting the life of the Devil in 17 stations, from innocence through experience into confrontation of our mortality. Nick Cave was inspired by Staffordshire flatback figurines, which became popular mantelpiece decorations in the Victorian period. The series is Cave’s first major body of visual work, culminating in his first solo museum exhibition.

What started as a desire to create a single small devil figure as a vehicle for an intense red glaze became a journey towards some kind of absolution from a series of shattering events. — Nick Cave

About Nick Cave
Nick Cave is a singer, songwriter, poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter and composer. He was born in Warracknabeal in Victoria, Australia and studied painting at the Caulfield Institute of Technology in Melbourne before abandoning his studies to pursue music. He rose to prominence fronting The Birthday Party (1973-83) before forming his current band, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, in 1984. Religion is a recurring theme in his work, which he approaches with a mixture of both doubt and belief. This tension is reflected in and essential for his creative process, as he draws on religion to inspire deeper and more imaginative ways of thinking. The Devil — A Life (2020-24) was previously shown at Xavier Hufkens Gallery in Brussels, Belgium, and was part of the exhibition We at the Sara Hildén Art Museum in Finland, together with work by Thomas Houseago and Brad Pitt.