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.
© Villa Next Door 2018
Contents of all photographs courtesy to the artists and to Galerie Maurits van de Laar, Den Haag
Bertus Pieters
