Art in corona times 75. Robe bleu, fond rouge; Quartair & West End project space, The Hague

To write a review for Villa La Repubblica about the group show Robe bleu, fond rouge i visited both Quartair and West End project space. Click here to read the review in VLR (in Dutch)

As i have written extensively about the exhibition in VLR, i leave you here with some pictures. The show is still open over the weekend, which is your last chance to see it!

left: Machteld Rullens; right: Morgan Betz

front, left to right: Marion van Rooij, Jan Wattjes; back: Luuk Kuipers

left to right: Judith van Bilderbeek, Morgan Betz, Marion van Rooij, Mirthe Klück

left to right: Pietertje van Splunter, Nies Vooijs, Annemieke Louwerens

left: Pietertje van Splunter; right: Nies Vooijs

Click here to read the review in VLR (in Dutch)

Now that you’ve come here, you might as well subscribe to Villa Next Door (top right of the page)!

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© Villa Next Door 2021

Contents of all photographs courtesy to the artists, Quartair and Projectruimte West End, Den Haag

Bertus Pieters

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

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.

Now that you’ve come here: subscribe to Villa Next Door (top right of the page)!

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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!!

negen10drie&7tig (9teen7ty3); Stichting Ruimtevaart, The Hague

The present show at Stichting Ruimtevaart (Space Travel Foundation) is based on an artistic conversation of four artists who met each other in 1973 at the former Vrije Academie (Free Academy) in The Hague.

By that time the Vrije Academie was the more progressive institution, compared to the then quite conservative Royal Academy (KABK) of The Hague.

However, there is no place for nostalgia in the show.

Each artist has his/her own way of working and thinking and in fact, their works have nothing to do with each other.

left to right, Pim Piët, Nies Vooijs, Jan de Weerd

In spite of or maybe even due to that, it has become a very accessible exhibition.

Works on show are by Pim Piët, Nies Vooijs and Jan de Weerd.

Alas, the fourth artist, Marion van Rooij, unexpectedly died only a few days before the opening of the show.

Because of that her works could not be presented, so she is now represented by some open spaces.

© Villa Next Door 2019

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

Bertus Pieters

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

See what you know; Quartair, The Hague

In the present exhibition at Quartair, painting is identified with space, knowledge, the act of painting and the self.

In fact this would apply to any discipline in visual and other arts, but of course painting is one of the basic and most traditional of the visual arts.

left to right: Wieteke Heldens, Pietertje van Splunter

That doesn’t mean that all works on show are paintings in a sense that they are pieces of canvas or panels with pasty pigments on them.

For instance André Kruysen’s works are sculptures and Delphine Courtillot makes ceramics.

left to right: Nies Vooijs, Ilona Plaum, André Kruysen

Even Ilona Plaum’s painting-like works are in fact prints and in one of her works Wieteke Heldens doesn’t use paint but a marker.

front to back: Nies Vooijs, André Kruysen, Robbin Heyker

left to right: Wietke Heldens, André Kruysen, Robbin Heyker

left to right: Robbin Heyker, André Kruysen

Indeed the way paint is used by the other artists is very personal and is very well presented in this spacious exhibition.

left to right: Pietertje van Splunter, André Kruysen, Robbin Heyker

left to right: André Kruysen, Wieteke Heldens

front to back: André Kruysen, Nies Vooijs

front to back: André Kruysen, Delphine Courtillot, Raymond Cuijpers

front to back: Delphine Courtillot, Raymond Cuijpers

Quartair, with its columns, is not always an easy space to create effective exhibitions but this one makes very good use of all sightlines and there is a very good dialogue between sculpture and painting, or rather between the spacial and the flat.

left to right: Raymond Cuijpers, Delphine Courtillot, Nies Vooijs

left to right: Ilona Plaum, Delphine Courtillot

As for its composition, arrangement, variety and quality this is certainly one of the best exhibitions in Quartair.

left to right: Pietertje van Splunter, Delphine Courtillot, Robbin Heyker

Content of all photographs courtesy to all artists and Quartair, den Haag

Bertus Pieters

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