The great thing about visiting openings is that sometimes you get to experience something no one expected. Like at the mini-expo 'Bep Rietveld, daughter of...' at art space Kuub in Utrecht. There are 72 paintings by the daughter of Gerrit Rietveld, the man who gave De Stijl its furniture and houses. In 1935, this Bep, not without skill with a brush, painted a portrait of Mrs Schröder, patron and namesake of the Rietveld-Schröder House. And also mistress of her father. Jaap Roëll, gallery owner, says in the accompanying video a beautiful story of how that relationship weighed heavily on the family.
At the opening of the expo, Bertus Mulder was also invited. This colleague and biographer of Gerrit Rietveld was able to tell that the architect admired the portrait his daughter had made of his mistress, and that is why it was given a place in the house. What nobody knew, but Bertus did, is that dad Rietveld did take the brush in hand to correct the canvas in a few points. Which points, he didn't remember. But it does make clear that being the daughter of a great artist has its consequences: it is difficult not to stand in your father's shadow.
That is also the theme of the performance that actually prompted the whole expo. Actress Audrey Bolder, gifted singer and cabaret performer who also once starred in GTST, made a solo about the woman, whose work she became acquainted with in a documentary shown at the Centraal Museum. Seeking more information, she got in touch with the family, and built a relationship with Martine Eskes, middle one of the six children Bep Rietveld gave birth to.
The exhibition at Kuub is a compromise Audrey made with the family: she actually wanted to take a few paintings with her on her tour, to show them to the public. The family would not allow that, and so it was decided to set up a small exhibition with the work of Gerrit Rietveld's daughter.
Bep never broke through as an artist, but as Martine Eskes explains in the video: that was never her intention. Or if it had ever been intended: because Bep Rietveld painted figuratively, she found no connection at all with the art scene of her time. Even more strongly, however, the expo reveals that Bep Rietveld would have had an impossible task to step out of her father's shadow. After all, how do you put yourself next to such a great art innovator? So she decided to excel at something in which she could easily surpass her father: building a close-knit modern family.
The exhibition can still be seen until Sunday, March 6. The show is still playing until April.
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