Art in corona times 54. A Kocsma; Stichting Ruimtevaart, The Hague

The present corona lockdown has made it extremely difficult to show art to the public.

An online presentation cannot compete with the real thing.

It is not possible for the viewer to lose oneself in the proper thing, with its own measures, techniques, shapes, colours etc.

Elizabeth de Vaal of the Post 15 Foundation – which facilitates residencies in the village of Pécsbagota, Hungary – has found a partial solution by inviting people personally and responsibly to see the A Kocsma exhibition, currently at Stichting Ruimtevaart.

Happy to receive her invitation, i visited Ruimtevaart some days ago.

The show with works by some twenty-nine Dutch artists (all former residents) was made on the occasion of the twelve-and-a-half years anniversary (in Dutch that’s called a “copper jubilee”) of the foundation and the Pécsbagota residency near the city of Pécs.

An advantage of a personal invitation was that Elizabeth could tell me everything about the history of the Pécsbagota residency, which is in a tiny village in the south of Hungary.

Quite a few Dutch artists have resided there since 2007.

There are also ties with the University of Pécs, Hungarian artists and art students.

Dutch artists have an opportunity to work in a place far from the madding crowd, in a rather better climate than the Dutch, and in a small village community which is by now used to having these artists hanging around.

It gives a good chance for an artist to see his/her own work and practice in different circumstances and as such to reflect on his/her own qualities, i think.

Here are some pictures of details of what is on show.

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Contents of all photographs courtesy to the artists, Stichting Post 15 and Stichting Ruimtevaart, Den Haag

Bertus Pieters

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Art in corona times 53. Topp & Dubio, Unstable Matter Situations: If I Said You Had A Beautiful Theory, Would You Hold It Against Me?; HOK Gallery, The Hague

In HOK Gallery’s last exhibition in its eleven square meters space, it has left the floor to Topp & Dubio.

They present their installation If I Said You Had A Beautiful Theory, Would You Hold It Against Me?

For that i’d say you shouldn’t treat them like the devil, as the installation may well sum up the problems of this year, or of the last decade or last few centuries if you wish, or it may solve them, or they aren’t problems at all.

The duo have built, scattered, hanged, exposed, hidden and changed the lot into an absurdist display of problems and would-be problems, or rather, visual facts and visual non-facts.

Focusing on the details the objects may suddenly look quite innocent, but then you never know.

The devil is always in the detail.

Although the whole installation may seem chaotic at first sight, there is a certain logic in it; in certain objects, in the course of moving through the gallery, in the combination of objects, and here and there it also looks a bit like an artistic autobiography of the duo.

Some objects have a metaphoric meaning, but even if you are not aware of that, they’ll make you give them a meaning.

The object of the opening, outside the gallery (still missing), even caused a stir in the neighbourhood, with the police and the bomb detonation unit assisting in an unstable matter situation.

The unforeseen situation became a metaphor itself, although the police wouldn’t like to see it that way.

But that is how the absurd works.

Topp & Dubio also made a radio program for local underground broadcaster Radio Tonka last Sunday night in which they presented the Top 2000 of problems (in Dutch).

Quite a relief from the traditional Dutch Top 2000 of top-hits.

The installation will still be on show over the next weekend.

In the mean time i’ve felt free to take details photographically out of their context.

As I couldn’t make a proper choice i’ve published most pics i made in this posting.

So if you can’t make any sense of them do visit the show, as far as you are able to enter the gallery under the present unstable circumstances.

Maybe you can ask what you really want to know.

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Contents of all photographs courtesy to Topp & Dubio and HOK Gallery, Den Haag

Bertus Pieters

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Art in corona times 52. A Finger In Every Pie, pre-graduation exhibition, students of the Royal Academy (KABK), The Hague

Venue at Binckhorstlaan. Left: the big sausage-like installation by Biko Wouterse and Maartje Balkestein

In these times of crisis and other turbulence one would almost forget that students at the art academies are actually working hard for their graduation due by the end of next spring.

Sienna Matijas – This seems to be a prelude to something interesting

Students of the Royal Academy of Art (Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten – KABK) in The Hague showed some work last weekend in a pre-graduation exhibition.

The show was spread over three venues.

Zowie Smeets – Shows a modest exercise in wall sculpture.

Due to the fact that i had left my phone at home (i seem to be one of those rare persons who don’t feel the urgency of being constantly accessible or on-line) i wasn’t welcome at the third venue, but well, one adapts.

Part of the curriculum for professionalism is that the students have to organise their own exhibition.

Laura van den Enden – Nice collection of smaller pictures, which is a good base for further study. But please skip the adolescent graffiti with its messy style and spelling. It’s terribly distracting.

Which is good, but one must bear in mind that most students are still developing things.

The two venues i visited are on one hand far from ideal for a proper exhibition, on the other hand the rawness of the two places may add to the fact that the ideas on show were still in the making.

Biko Wouterse, Maartje Balkestein – Part of their big black pudding.

As such one can also doubt if it is worth saying something critical about the exhibition.

At the same time, showing something in public also means that your work becomes part of the knowledge and taste of the viewer. Exhibiting means you don’t want the viewer to be indifferent.

Ellen Yiu – Very intriguing installation with textiles and other materials. Promising, i’d say.

Indifferent i never am concerning art, but the actual show did make me ambivalent.

Whether it is the influence of the present crisis or anything else, i felt a general atmosphere of bleakness in the parts of the exhibition i saw, maybe even a bit of a lack of commitment to the handicraft of the trade.

Joseph Thabang Palframan – Intriguing installation with painting and objects. This guy can do probably a lot more than this. Again, promising, i’d say.

More than ever this felt like an interlude.

In the mean time i wish all students and KABK the very best in these troubled times, and that we will all be able to see your graduation show by mid 2021!

Yota Karas – Intriguing collection of photography and painting.

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Contents of all photographs courtesy to the students and KABK, Den Haag

Bertus Pieters

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Façades of The Hague #125

Apartment block with interesting architectural decoration over its porch.

Built in 1919, it has lost a bit of its charm because of the modernisation of its window frames.

© Villa Next Door 2020

All pictures were taken in March 2017.

Bertus Pieters

Façades of The Hague from #72 onwards: https://villanextdoor2.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/

Façades of The Hague #1 – 71: https://villanextdoor.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/

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Art in corona times 51. Cao Guimarães, Natascha Libbert & Ricardo van Eyk, Trace On Trace; 38CC, Delft

The human species consciously and extensively intervenes in the natural environment, for habitation, agriculture, industry, transport and recreation.

We all know the sad stories of pollution and injuries to the landscape i guess.

In the mean time humans, like other species, are careless as well.

This carelessness also leaves traces of human activity.

38CC in Delft shows works by three artists – Cao Guimarães (1965), Natascha Libbert (1973) and Ricardo van Eyk (1984) – who are interested in these traces.

One could call it the aesthetics of human carelessness.

Libbert shows photographs made during her travels.

They are usually attractive pictures of less attractive carelessness.

They have the deceptive beauty of apples in paradise.

Their abstract, sometimes even gemlike beauty, contrasts starkly with their often distressing content.

Very inventive is the way Van Eyk’s intervention in the gallery connects his and Libbert’s works. Van Eyk is the most “objective” of the three artists.

His aesthetics of carelessness are about the traces you may pass along on a daily basis without noticing them.

Small signs of decay and destruction like cuttings or abrasions.

Guimarães’ works are the most festive of the three.

His two warm-hearted and colourful video’s celebrate life with the sheer joy of colours, and additional sounds produced by others.

Once absorbed in these attractive video’s it is difficult to stop watching them.

All together this very interesting show gives a much needed deviant accent to the otherworldly historic dollhouse-beauty of Delft’s city centre.

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Contents of all photographs courtesy to the artists and 38CC, Delft

Bertus Pieters

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Art in corona times 50. Theme, Method, Freedom of Choice; Galerie De Zaal, Delft

Currently at Galerie De Zaal in Delft works by twelve artists are on show, based on their themes and working methods.

The exhibition was composed by painter Jaap van den Ende (1944) who divided the twelve artists into six couples, duos who have each one aspect, a working method or a theme, in common.

There are for instance Philip Akkerman (1957) and Jos van Merendonk (1956) who have stuck obstinately to one theme during the greater part of their artistic lives.

For Van Merendonk it is the colour chromium green and some basic shapes, movements and structures and for Akkerman it is his self portrait.

In the case of Akkerman the self portrait has become no more than a scheme to make extreme painterly variations on, while Van Merendonk’s theme and methods seem to be even more limited, concentrating on the subtleties of the outcomes.

Maarten Janssen (1960) and Anjes Adriaansens (1955) both use chance in their methods.

In Janssen’s work that results in very different works in different materials in which there is always a sense of imperfection or a kind of upside-downness, while in Adriaansens’ paintings a new harmony is found in the methodical chaos she creates.

Gracia Khouw (1967) and Jan Smejkal (1948) both use words in their works.

In Smejkal’s works the words, although perfectly well readable, seem to blur, while with Khouw words create the composition, balancing in between meaning and abstraction.

The works on show by Guido Lippens (1939) and Arie Berkulin (1939) seem to have a touch of exoticism, while both artists’ works have evolved from concrete abstraction.

To both, but especially to Lippens’ works, decoration has become a meaningful aesthetic element.

Rien Monshouwer (1947) and Gerco de Ruijter (1961) both reflect on place, limited parts of the surface of our planet we use or inhabit.

In his currently presented paintings Monshouwer concentrates on the scheme of the one or two persons household apartments that were built in the 1970s, and gives them a new life with lyrical but subtle colours.

De Ruijter’s presented works concentrate on the patterns of circular sprinkling units used in agriculture in dryer places all over the globe, bringing them together as collections or examples of unearthly coins.

In the works by Jaap van den Ende and Eric Jan van de Geer (1965) reality is always given a second thought.

Almost literally in Van den Ende’s work; in fact his oeuvre has become more and more a method of thought and second thought of reality, while in Van de Geer’s works on show the inherent decomposition of the CMYK printing method makes them an ultimate afterthought of reality.

As a whole it is a very full and rich exhibition and a must see for those of you who think that the materiality of ideas is an inalienable aspect of visual art.

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Contents of all photographs courtesy to the artists and Galerie De Zaal, Delft

Bertus Pieters

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Art in corona times 49. Bob Bonies & Cor van Dijk; Galerie Ramakers, The Hague

Galerie Ramakers presents at the moment some real hardcore geometric abstract modernism.

On show are works by old hands in the trade Bob Bonies (1937) and Cor van Dijk (1952).

Old hands though they may be, they don’t show you a program of old boring tricks. Indeed there may be something to defend in geometric abstraction, but the best defence is the refinement in the works of both artists.

They are both deepening their methods and their ideas, something which is especially visible in Bonies’ remarkable development through the years.

As Van Dijk’s works constantly attract attention by their almost casual simplicity, Bonies’ colours add an almost festive note to this exhibition.

Something festive which is not just appropriate for this dark season, but also for the dreary times we are currently living in.

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Contents of all photographs courtesy to Bob Bonies, Cor van Dijk and Galerie Ramakers, Den Haag.

Bertus Pieters

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Façades of The Hague #124

Double villa Plato and Aristoteles (“Aristotle”), Nieuwe Parklaan. The premises are said to be built around 1910 (the neighbouring double villa, built in exactly the same style, is said to be built in 1928). Designed as a chic apartment building for the upper class, it houses a hotel today.

The hotel was put up for sale as recently as November this year, and in its advertisement the owners boast that it was designed by Eduard Douwes Dekker (or Multatuli; 1820-1887), one of the greatest Dutch authors of the 19^th century.

This is however a matter of clumsy ignorance, as Douwes Dekker was not an architect. Nieuwe Parklaan was just planned in the year of his death and the house was built at least 23 years after his death in a style that was not fashionable in Douwes Dekker’s time.

A descendant of Douwes Dekker’s brother or uncle, called Edward, is said to have had architectural aspirations, but he was born in 1915. It might be that another member of the Douwes Dekker family was indeed a designer or architect. Must marketing always be so stupid and clumsy?

All pictures were taken in March 2017.

Bertus Pieters

Façades of The Hague from #72 onwards: https://villanextdoor2.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/

Façades of The Hague #1 – 71: https://villanextdoor.wordpress.com/category/facades-of-the-hague/

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