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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© Villa Next Door 2020

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 34. Artist Support Fair, Geen bloem zonder wortel (No Flower Without a Root); Quartair, The Hague

What a good event this was, last weekend at Quartair!

It stressed the exceptional position of The Hague in the field of the arts, but it also indicated that that doesn’t happen just like that.

Marjolijn van der Meij (with a nod to George Stubbs)

Less than thirty years ago The Hague was a provincial backwater.

Bringing it where it is now, has taken a lot of energy.

However, art life in The Hague is still very vulnerable.

Main point is that it should be recognised that the development of a blossoming artistic life in The Hague is up to its artists and its artists’ initiatives and not to the local authorities’ hobbies.

Therefore it is heart warming to see artists trying to take back the initiative.

Of course this can only be a beginning, and in itself the event was modest in almost everything.

175 works of art were put up for sale, each for E300 or less, and so the works on show were small.

However, what it lacked in dimensions, it won in diversity.

This diversity is one of the best assets of art life in The Hague.

Here i show you thirty of the works i found most interesting and best photographable.

A very personal choice of course, but that’s the risk of reading Villa Next Door.

By the way, while writing these words, extra measures were announced by the government to cope with the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, so, the title of the open letter that accompanied the event Don’t forget the artists! has become even more urgent.

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© Villa Next Door 2020

Contents of all photographs courtesy to artists and Quartair, Den Haag.

Bertus Pieters

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

Christie van der Haak and guests: Different than Usual; Galerie Maurits van de Laar, The Hague

Well, there you are: i proposed to publish only a few pictures as a teaser for what i think you should really go and see.

But then, when selecting pictures for this post, i was overcome by the same kind of drunkenness you get when seeing this exhibition, and here are far more pictures than i wanted to publish intially.

Source of this drunkenness is Christie van der Haak (1950), or rather her work.

She invited sixteen guest artists to show their works against the backdrop of her own wall decorations at Galerie Maurits van de Laar.

At the opening one of the artists called it a dialogue, which i think is the right idea.

But it is also a declaration of love for the works of these very different artists and even for art in general.

Most of them are no artists of the gallery, some of them are household names (at least in The Hague), some of them are quite unknown here behind the dunes, which makes the show all the more interesting.

Generally, Van der Haak’s decorations give an extra dimension to the works of the other artists.

Marcel Zalme, Reinoud van Vught, Harold de Bree

It stresses their peculiarity, or even their mystery, if you wish.

It is as if everything takes place within one big frame story which leads you to all kinds of different narratives and temperaments, all glowing with their own characteristics.

Contents of all photographs courtesy to all artists and Galerie Maurits van de Laar, Den Haag.

Bertus Pieters

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Cedric ter Bals, Shary Boyle, Susanna Inglada & Marjolijn van der Meij; Galerie Maurits van de Laar, The Hague

Probably the best word to describe the works of the present exhibition at Maurits van de Laar’s Gallery is ‘awkward,’ but in a very positive way.

One could also define it as radical theatricality; the crumpling of her subjects by Marjolijn van der Meij (1970), the exaggeration of her scenes by Shary Boyle (1972), the intensifying of the interaction between her actors by Susanna Inglada (1983) and the firm anachronising of the present day and the First World War by Cedric ter Bals (1990).

In the front gallery especially Van der Meij steals the show with her crumpled Arcadian kitsch presented on shiny silk, extremely over-the-top in a way that it becomes extremely down-to-earth again.

In the lower part of the gallery Ter Bals makes a colourful carnival of death, destruction and reincarnation.

Contents of all photographs courtesy to the artists and to Galerie Maurits van de Laar, Den Haag

Bertus Pieters

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