'All that remains for me to say is that I think it is a fantastic painting and that I find it downright criminal that the Heineken family is unwilling to display the painting in a public place. It shows what an incredible thug the Heineken family is.' Dixit Maarten van Rossem at the end of his speech at the opening of Moesmania at Utrecht's Stadsschouwburg theatre.
The Utrecht professional grumbles about Het Gerucht, a painting by Utrecht painter and surrealist Joop Moesman, born in 1908. According to Van Rossem, by the way, also a huge grumbler.
That painting, of a naked woman on a bicycle with a bowless violin on the back in what Van Rossum says is a typical Utrecht street, we know only as a reproduction. The Heineken family does not release it, but it could well be, again according to Van Rossem, that it has already completely collapsed because Moesman, notorious for his miserliness, used unsound materials for his work.
Making of.
So let's see the reproductions by Utrecht artists, now on display in the Hekman foyer of Utrecht's Stadsschouwburg. A whole series of canvases of a fictional 'making of' process shows that while the painting may not be technically perfect, it is well struck and evokes the right mystical atmosphere. Although Van Rossem is mostly reminded of the typical image of a Sunday in Utrecht.
Whether Moesman was a good painter: opinions differ on that. Even Van Rossem is no admirer of the oeuvre of the painter who worked all his life for the Dutch Railways, and showed his 'hatred of life' every day by leaving a reeking wind behind when leaving his office. Is the oeuvre therefore cause for a Moesman year?
Why not, you might think, and it's a great reason for the senior part of Utrecht's visual arts scene to once again raise a toast to its illustrious past. Fortunately, there is also a focus on the new in Utrecht art. More about that later. Although, of course, we must guard against too much interpretation. Because Moesman hated that. Just like Maarten van Rossem.
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