Art in corona times 7b. Mondrian Route, Kunstmuseum, The Hague (second leg: Mondrian & De Stijl, Lucassen)

This is the second part of two about the reopened Kunstmuseum in The Hague and the exhibitions of the so-called Mondrian Route. Click here to see pictures of the first part, about A.R. Penck and Navid Nuur.

The second leg of the tour leads along the permanent exhibition about Mondrian and De Stijl and the great solo show of Lucassen.

Of course the KM is famous for its Mondrian collection, works by other De Stijl artists and their contemporaries.

Usually i take that exhibition for granted.

I’ve seen it a few times, it’s good to know that it’s there and that’s it.

As following the Mondrian Route means it is obligatory to see the De Stijl & Mondrian section, i took the opportunity to check if my favourites are still there.

Of course they are and they never disappoint.

Apart from the obvious works by Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) there are other personal favourites like Bart van der Leck (1876-1958) and Vilmos Huszár (1884-1960).

Again, under the tranquillity of the Covid-19 measures at the museum, it was a great joy to see these works in all there preciousness again, without the pressure of any other visitors who may disturb your attention.

After all, art watching is an egotistic activity.

At best it’s you and the work of art, and nobody in between or around.

However, i couldn’t spend much time there as i needed time for the Lucassen show. Reinier Lucassen (1939) has built an impressive oeuvre of paintings.

He started in the 1960s as an artist who combined elements of figurative and abstract art and of high art and consumer culture, like other artists in the Netherlands and Belgium, usually called Nieuwe figuratie (New Figuration).

In the case of Lucassen it has become an art intermingled with the beauty of the banal and the absurd.

Lucassen’s work is also linguistic, as such it may be even more mysterious to a non-Dutch speaker than it is for a Batavophone.

As usual in these big shows at the KM there is an overload of works.

The works are not presented chronologically.

To an extent, that works, as mutual correlations between the paintings of different periods may become clear.

On the other hand, after watching intensely (which is now really possible!) for some time, one gets the idea of getting a bit dizzy of all these different voices that shout, sing and whisper at you.

To be short about visiting the KM at the moment: it is now possible to really look at the works intensely, or even reflect on them while looking, which is great and unique for this period of the crisis.

However, as the exhibitions are quite big – apart from Navid Nuur’s, although his is big in its reflective content – you need to plan ahead what you really want to see.

Otherwise you may not fall victim to the Covid-19 virus but to the Stendhal syndrome.

© Villa Next Door 2020

Contents of all photographs courtesy to the estate of the artists, to Lucassen and to the Kunstmuseum, Den Haag.

Bertus Pieters

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Art in corona times 7a. Mondrian Route, Kunstmuseum, The Hague (first leg: A.R. Penck and Navid Nuur)

This picture report is in two parts, otherwise it would be too long and you might have problems opening it. Click here to see the next part, Art in corona times 7b.

June 1st the Kunstmuseum (let’s abbreviate it to KM) here in The Hague reopened its doors after two and a half months of closure because of the Covid-19 pandemic, just like other museums in this country.

There are very strict restrictions to enter and to move around in the museum.

Reservations have to be made online for a two hours timeslot, there is an obligatory choice between two routes and only one-way traffic is possible, but generally everything is very well organised and staff seem to be more friendly than usual.

The two routes are the so-called Berlage Route and the Mondrian Route.

When i visited on June 2^nd i took the Mondrian Route which leads you along the A.R. Penck exhibition, Navid Nuur’s presentation, the permanent De Stijl collection and the Lucassen exhibition.

Although two hours were obviously not enough for me, i very much enjoyed seeing all these works in real.

Because of the restrictions and the maximum number of visitors (which is indicated for every room) i had a very tranquil afternoon.

No crowds of people who are in your way, just silence and very little noise of another visitor now and then, that’s how i like it! In this report you see some aspects of the first leg of my tour: A.R. Penck (1939-2017) and Navid Nuur (1976).

I am planning a review for Villa la Repubblica (in Dutch) about at least one of the three not-permanent shows, so keep yourself posted!

As for A.R. Penck: I saw his work first in a solo show somewhere in the 1970s in the Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam (digitally i can’t find any reference to that exhibition).

That was quite an experience to me as an adolescent (which, i must say, is quite a broad definition in my case).

His works were exhibited on partitions, creating small rooms where you were confronted with his graffiti.

It was both artistically and for its presentation a revelation to me. Now he has become one of the classics of German art.

The present show at the KM is quite a big retrospective.

It has all the pros and cons of such a blockbuster.

It is quite overwhelming, and even some huge paintings were pushed into the very inner of the museum in one way or another.

A few smaller parts of the show are closed because of the corona measures, but, as it’s such a big show, you don’t really miss that.

I felt privileged having all these works practically for my own.

No idea how old Navid Nuur was when i saw my first Penck exhibition, but the times of revelations seem to be far behind us.

After the savagery of Penck’s painting Nuur offers you more introspection in the KM’s so-called project space.

Nuur shows you the almost eternal life of dead matter, its transformation into minerals, into life, into light, into history, into philosophy, permeating and indeed being part of us and the rest of the world.

Navid Nuur, Philip Galle, Pieter Bruegel

He has made a fine ensemble out of it.

Another visitor walked around in the room as well, reading her booklet about the show, when at last she asked me if i understood it.

To me that is a question of conscience, for, as an art historian, one knows all too well that one can never fully understand a work of art…..

Next leg of the tour (Mondrian & De Stijl and Lucassen) is in the next report. Click here to get there.

© Villa Next Door 2020

Contents of all photographs courtesy to the estate of A.R. Penck, to Navid Nuur and to the Kunstmuseum, Den Haag.

Bertus Pieters

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Bes, Small God in Ancient Egypt, and archaeological collection; Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam

Bes pillar, sandstone, Meroe, 1st century AD

As i visited Amsterdam for some serious business (of which i will report later) i also took the chance to see the Allard Pierson Museum there, which contains different collections of the University of Amsterdam.

Horus falcon in military uniform, limestone, Roman Period, after 30 BC

Presently there is an exhibition about the Egyptian god Bes.

Bes with sword and serpent and Beset with tambourine, limestone, Ptolemaic Period, 302-30 BC

Bes, sometimes together with his wife Beset, was a god who was helpful in all kinds of aspects of daily life and he was also a deity to have fun with.

Tutu as a sphinx and Bes on its breast, limestone, Roman Period, after 30 BC

He was small and a bit corpulent, with a big bearded, sometimes even lion-like head.

Bes and Beset, limestone, Ptolemaic Period, 302-30 BC

That was a bit problematic for the very strict classical Egyptian aesthetics and it is interesting to see how they managed to represent him through the ages.

Bes, limestone, Ptolemaic Period, 302-30 BC

Woman in childbirth, terracotta, Roman Period, after 30 BC

Quite a lot of different aspects of Bes are paid attention to.

The Emperor Augustus, plaster cast, Roman

Apart from Bes i visited the permanent archaeological collection of the museum.

A copy of Praxiteles’s famous sculpture, originally Greek, 4th century BC

Painted mummy mask, stucco, Egyptian, Ptolemaic Period 2nd century BC

It has some copies of famous classical sculpture, and fine originals too.

Amazon, Roman copy, 2nd cent. AD, of a Greek original, 440 BC

Drinking bowl with choir of satyrs, pottery, Athens, 560-550 BC

Drinking bowl, pottery, Athens, 525-475 BC

These are just a few examples.

Hercules and the Cercopes, plaster cast of a metope, Greco-Sicilian, 550 BC

© Villa Next Door 2020

Contents of all photographs courtesy to the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam.

Bertus Pieters

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Lisa Sebestikova, Forming Fluidity: Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague

The installation Forming Fluidity is Lisa Sebestikova’s (1988) first solo show in a museum, presently at Museum Beelden aan Zee.

It is however quite clear that she is ready for such a presentation.

Her more or less abstract sculptures are seemingly free floating in the air.

The whole composition may remind you of objects floating in the sea, subject to the tidal forces.

In fact the sculptures are based on objects Sebestikova found on nearby Scheveningen Beach.

The way she abstracts her subjects looks very much like how natural forces – water, wind, sand – reshape, crush, polish or re-polish objects.

As a visitor you can walk over the carpeted floor, which gives the installation a warm and inviting atmosphere, with muted acoustics.

No half work has been delivered by Sebestikova.

Courageously she has used the whole space of the museum’s so-called Cabinet space (it looks more like a neo-Medieval chapel) making its columns part of the composition.

© Villa Next Door 2019

Contents of all photographs courtesy to Lisa Sebestikova and Museum Beelden aan Zee, Den Haag.

Bertus Pieters

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Quentley Barbara, Now n Then; Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague

I visited the Museum Beelden aan Zee to write a review about Quentley Barbara’s (1993) recent sculpture Now n Then for Villa La Repubblica. Click here to read the article (in Dutch).

As i’ve written quite extensively about it in VLR, i leave you here with some pictures of details and the strong recommendation to go and take a look for yourself.

Click here to read the full article in Villa La Repubblica (in Dutch).

© Villa Next Door 2019

Contents of all photographs courtesy to Quentley Barbara and Museum Beelden aan Zee, Den Haag.

Bertus Pieters

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The renovated Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden

Leiden’s municipal Museum De Lakenhal was reopened this year after a renovation of some years.

A few days ago i visited the museum to see the renovations.

Two new and modern exhibition rooms were added to the stately 17^th century building for exhibitions of present day art.

At the moment photographs by Marjan Teeuwen (1953) and Karin Borghouts (1959) are on show.

Both deal with architecture, its demolition and its rebuilding.

Both spaces are quite beautiful, with a curved ceiling and a panorama window on one end.

The new wing has its own entrance and is, as such, not really connected to the rest of the museum; which doesn’t mean there is no modern and contemporary art on show in the main building.

The rest of the museum tries to find a link between the history of the city and its art and artists from both Leiden and elsewhere.

Roy Villevoye‘s (1960) Preparations (2009) aptly shares a room with the Lakenhal’s most prestigious treasures: the great works by Cornelis Engebrechtsz (c. 1462-1527) and his famous pupil Lucas van Leyden (1494-1533), both from Leiden.

Engebrechtsz, for all his artistic shortcomings, was a great colourist, composition designer and storyteller and his two great triptychs (amongst smaller works) in the Lakenhal are no less than masterpieces.

Their wealth of rhythms, colours and themes may remind you of the polyphonic music of the time.

It was a great joy seeing them again (and indeed to see Villevoyes stunning work again).

The most famous work in the room is of course Lucas’ Last Judgement triptych (1527), which fortunately survived the massive iconoclasm later that century.

Leiden also boasts a small but interesting collection of 17^th century art, connected to Leiden, in its wonderful rooms with 19^th century skylights.

The so-called Pape Corridor shows works by novelist Jan Wolkers (1925-2007) who also was a prolific visual artist and who was born in Oegstgeest near Leiden and as a youngster he worked and painted there.

His visual works on show are very much historic documents now.

During the 16^th and 17^th centuries Leiden became rich and important for its cloth industry and sales, for which Lakenhal was originally built (‘Lakenhal’ means Cloth Hall).

Some of that wealth can still be seen in the present museum.

The museum recently presented some new cloth designs, amongst others by The Hague artist Christie van der Haak (1950).

Isaac Claesz. van Swanenburg (late 16th century)

Lakenhal also has an important collection of works from the first half of the 20^th century, interspersed with contemporary works like this moving portrait of the hapless Marinus van der Lubbe (1909-1934; also from Leiden) by Gert Germeraad (1959).

Only few artefacts will remind you of Leiden’s academic history, amongst others a phantom cabinet by Mark Dion (1961).

Another point of some local historic chauvinism is Leiden’s heroic role during the Dutch Revolt (1568-1648), which inspired the museum to commission a monumental photo work by Erwin Olaf (1959), which is probably more impressive than all other works in the room.

The museum breaths a sense of history connected to the present day.

Mattheus Ignatius van Bree (19th century)

Renovated it has become pleasant, clearly structured, light and more diversified.

It doesn’t pretend to be cosmopolitan and it isn’t geared to big blockbusters, which is a relief in between all those art museums in the country which try to be interchangeable international entrepreneurial art depots.

The Lakenhal Museum can be proud of what it has become.

Contents of all photographs courtesy to the artists and to Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden

Bertus Pieters

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Stormy Weather; De Kerk (The Church)/Museum Arnhem

I visited the exhibition Stormy Weather at Museum Arnhem, presently accommodated in De Kerk (The Church, St. Walburgiskerk in Arnhem) to write a review for Villa La Repubblica. Click here to read the review (in Dutch).

As i’ve written already quite extensively about the exhibition in Villa La Repubblica, i leave you here with some impressions and with the strong recommendation to go and see it all for yourself.

Denise Ferreira da Silva & Arjuna Neuman

Click here to read the review of this exhibiton in Villa La Repubblica (in Dutch)

Some stormy weather in Arnhem, when i left the exhibition…

Contents of all photographs courtesy to the artists and to Museum Arnhem

Bertus Pieters

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William Kentridge, 10 Drawings for Projection; Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam

I visited Eye Filmmuseum to write a review about 10 Drawings for Projection by William Kentridge (1955) for Villa La Repubblica. Click here to read the review (in Dutch).

These pictures were made with the intention to give myself a mnemonic of what i had seen and experienced.

Even while trying to make a choice from them for this blog, i felt being under the spell of these ten impressive animations.

Inadequate as they are i hope these pics will inpire you to see the exhibition too; and don’t forget to take your time!

Click here to read the review in Villa La Repubblica (in Dutch)!

Contents of all photographs courtesy to William Kentridge and Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam

Bertus Pieters

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Krijn Giezen and others, An Unusual Stroll; GEM, The Hague

Krijn Giezen (1939-2011) was one of my teachers at the Royal Academy in The Hague.

When he started teaching by the end of the 1970s, there was a kind of split between traditional craftsmanship and (traditionilised) conceptualism at the Academy, and there was little room for individual artistic development.

Both sides took themselves extremely seriously and Giezen, as a newcomer, didn’t seem to fit in very well.

He appealed to the inventiveness and imagination of his students, which was quite unusual at the time (and which is still, or again, a sensitive point at the Royal Academy and in education in general).

He didn’t care very much for technique or aesthetics, contrary to what we had learned so diligently.

“Make a chair!” he told us, for our first assignment.

Students who were all thumbs, like me, were initially shocked, but soon it became clear that it was nowhere necessary at all to construct a piece of furniture.

His ways of seeing and working didn’t influence me immediately, but later on they did so undeniably.

As a teacher he was easy going, accessible, good humoured and never imposing himself as the master who knows all.

That is also how his work looks like.

Giezen was very inquisitive about the playful en inventive aspects of humanity, again, not interested in technique or aesthetics, and extremely uninterested in financial and eternity values.

It is this warm-heartedness that shimmers through the present show of his work at GEM.

As a former student i just hope present viewers will feel the same pleasure i had looking at his works.

His pictures, documentation and objects are accompanied by works by artists of the present generation: Semâ Bekirović (1977), Paul Geelen (1983), Bram De Jonghe (1985) and Chaim van Luit (1985).

An excellent choice as there is a good dialogue between these and Giezen’s works.

It also goes to show that Giezen’s works are still very much of our time.

Content of all photograph courtesy to all artists, the estate of Krijn Giezen, the owners of the works and GEM, Den Haag

Bertus Pieters

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Façades of The Hague #91

Small sculpture, probably representing Hop-‘o-My-Thumb, by Tom Otterness (1952), Harteveltstraat, in front of Museum Beelden aan Zee.

Otterness, who started his career with amongst others the questionable video Dog Shot Film in 1977, made this far more endearing small sculpture (2004) as part of a number of fairy tale figures along the coast next to the museum.

The small sculpture used to stand in front of the museum’s entrance, but was recently removed to stand more near his fellow sculptures, pointing towards the museum (as can be seen in the last pictures).

First four pictures were taken in March 2017, last three pictures were taken in June 2019

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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