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

VILLA NEXT DOOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ADVERTISING ON THIS PAGE!!

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).

© Villa Next Door 2019

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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Carel Visser, Genesis; Museum Beelden aan Zee, Den Haag

I visited Museum Beelden aan Zee to write a review for Villa La Repubblica about the present exhibition with works by Carel Visser (1928-2015). Click here to read the review (in Dutch)

It’s a serious lack of education if you’ve never heard of Carel Visser.

In that case make sure to take the shortest way to Beelden aan Zee to see this show soon!

I leave you here with some pictures as i’ve written quite extensively in VLR about the show.

© Villa Next Door 2019

Contents of all photographs courtesy to the owners of the works and Museum Beelden aan Zee, Den Haag

Bertus Pieters

VILLA NEXT DOOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ADVERTISING ON THIS PAGE!!

Ossip Zadkine, Zadkine by the Sea; Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague

The Russian-born French sculptor Ossip Zadkine (1888/90-1967) has a special relationship with the Netherlands, in particular with Rotterdam, where his monument The Destroyed City, placed in 1953, became the ultimate modernist war monument (click here to see some pictures of the monument in situ).

Presently a prestigious retrospective of his work is on show in Museum Beelden aan Zee.

Zadkine is clearly the proverbial artist of the second quarter of the 20^th century with a lot of expressionism and cubism and a touch of Modigliani in his portraits.

As such he was an inventive craftsman and a prolific artist, and there is a lot to be admired in the show.

However, his prolific output also makes his work a bit predictable which becomes clear in this exhibition of one hundred works (!), crammed into this otherwise very spacious museum.

The presentation is more or less chronological in a kind of makeshift galleries and more loosely arranged in the left over open space, an approach that tries to bring some order in this forest of sculptures.

As such the presentation lacks good sightlines which might have expressed the special qualities of certain works in dialogue with each other.

What lyrical power the individual works may have, is destroyed by this massive, wholesale approach.

However, for the aficionados who just want to see a lot of Zadkine this is probably their best chance.

Content of all photographs courtesy to the estate of Ossip Zadkine, all owners and to Museum Beelden aan Zee, Den Haag

Bertus Pieters

Façades of The Hague #73

The façade of Museum Beelden aan Zee (Sculptures by the Sea museum) is one of the most remarkable in The Hague for such a significant building, in that it hardly exists.

Built in a dune and under a 19^th century neo-classicist pavilion it only has a modernist but unassuming entrance (in Harteveltstraat) and a concrete perimeter.

It was built in 1992-94 and designed by Wim Quist (1930) for the Scholten sculpture collection.

Its real architectural value is very much in the inside and it is one the best museum buildings for sculpture imaginable.

Also for its interesting exhibitions it deserves far more prestige than it presently has.

Nevertheless its outside is also interesting in that it doesn’t want to be obtrusive.

It has about the same colour as the sand and it also looks like a kind of protection of the small dune area with the old pavilion on top.

In the southwest corner of the museum area sits a sculpture by Igor Mitoraj (1944-2014)

Seen from the beach the museum is hardly visible.

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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