Rebecca Linders idolises sex. She places aureoles over sex situations in her new series of drawings, Icon Nection. Sex icons, in other words. This is how she sanctifies intimacy. Linders: 'I had to learn to see sex as sacred.' What does sex have to do with icons? 'Sex had always been off limits for me. Something you don't do, that you don't talk about. I come from a...
If he could have, photographer Ed van der Elsken would have preferred to have a camera built into his head, to capture the world twenty-four hours a day. What he did manage to make are countless beautiful photographs, films and books. The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam shows his rich legacy at the major exhibition The camera in love. He was...
Delicate petals, tough links, a denim collar. You can't dream it up or Danish designers have designed them in silver as jewellery. Thousand Jewels offers an overview of Danish design from the twentieth century. Among them are internationally renowned designers and silversmiths, such as Georg Jensen (not only jewellery but also silver tableware), Kaj Bojesen (not only silver but also...
The positive effects of culture are demonstrated again and again. It is high time the sector used these facts in improving its image. Our western and southern neighbours have boosted the image of culture with a number of successful initiatives. The sports sector is another example of image building that the cultural sector can learn from. There...
Gerard de Kleijn is leaving on 1 February after six years as director at Museum Gouda. The flamboyant, eloquent and erudite director leaves behind a financially and artistically healthy Museum for his successor Marc de Beyer. De Kleijn made the museum more accessible to Gouda residents and art lovers from outside the historic city. In 2016, the museum attracted around 40,000...
As a boy, I loved visiting the Egyptian department of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. Half in the twilight, the mysterious mummy coffins there stared at me. We are now several decades and exhibits further on. Since this week, the newest Egypt display has been open. Even in brilliant light, the collection appears to retain its fascinating power. At the same time, the museum tells in Queens...
Dutchers in huis is the name of the new exhibition at the Mauritshuis, which makes you scratch your head: surely the Mauritshuis always focuses on painting from the Netherlands? This time, however, it is about Dutch masters from the British Royal Collection. Top-quality genre pieces were chosen, including such famous ones as Johannes Vermeer's The Music Lesson. Their temporary arrival at...
"Things happen, and then they happen again, but not the same way, not quite; such is the logic of the biennial. And then there are things which have never happened before, and which happen now and in a time that seems somehow out of time, or takes our 'now' out with it." [hints]"Things happen, and then they happen again, but not....
A major retrospective of the work of Fernando Botero (1932) is on show at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, entitled Botero: Celebrate Life! The rush of opening such an exhibition takes energy out of him, but strangely enough painting never exhausts him, he says in his studio in Monaco. 'I have never experienced anything more fulfilling than painting or sculpting. Painting takes you out of everyday reality. You forget your body - even your existence. It's intense, but while painting I don't feel any fatigue, even after working for seven or eight hours. Whereas at a cocktail party I'm exhausted after only half an hour.'
Calm has returned to the North Brabant Museum in 's-Hertogenbosch. After more than 400,000 people saw the successful and widely acclaimed Hieronymus Bosch exhibition, the halls are now light and quiet again. No more opening hours from early morning to midnight. Just, peace and quiet. Although the Jan Fabre mosaics hanging there now are disturbing. Mosaic Panels 2016 is...
Anyone who can remember the fall of the wall has grown up with the threat of nuclear attack. And with that comes the idiotic government advice to get under the table in case of a nuclear explosion, preferably with a colander on your head. And to keep plenty of canned food and water on hand.
There are outside opportunities to be taken advantage of. Egon Schiele's Portrait of Edith by his wife Edith will be joined by Gustav Klimt's Judith I from Vienna for a one-off at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. Two fascinating works, both very rarely on loan. And although the artists knew and appreciated each other, there is almost no greater difference imaginable than...
The stupidest question I come across all too often is THE question: what is the tangible result of your projects for audiences? Or more broadly drawn: what can art & culture measurably add to lives? Add that question together with the current clamour for 'utility in art' and I get accutely red pimples from these non-answerable questions. And I...
The Jugendstil curls of the famous 'salad oil poster' adorn the logo of the major Toorop exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. And while this choice is recognisable and appealing, there is something to be said against it. After all, the museum is so keen to show other sides of Toorop. And there are surprisingly many of them. The Gemeentemuseum has a history with...
The Hermitage Amsterdam has something 'new': a new museum space in the museum on the river Amstel will be home to the 'first' Outsider Art Museum in the Netherlands from 17 March. With artworks by national and international Outsider artists. Excuse me, new? Does the museum not know at all that Zwolle once had a similar museum, with an extensive collection of outsider art? Outsider art returns with this...
A mythical aura often surrounds a museum's depot. How many works of unparalleled value does a top collection like the Mauritshuis let gather dust on its shelves? And more importantly, why? And as a museum, wouldn't it be better to sell them? In the exhibition Highlights from the Depot, the Mauritshuis answers such questions. At the same time, new questions arise,...
The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (RMO) in Leiden reopens on Tuesday 15 December after a major renovation and asbestos remediation. The museum immediately unpacks with a completely revamped Classics department: Greeks, Romans and Etruscans. There are also three small temporary exhibitions. Anyone entering the hall of the museum will not immediately notice any difference: fortunately, the Egyptian Taffeta temple is still just standing on...
With one day to go, it's time to look at what stood out about the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. The picture of the whole festival is diffuse, as befits a fest whose programme booklet is almost three hundred pages thick. There was, as always, a sea of films about abuses and current political issues, but there were...
The man's gaze turned upwards. He looks puzzled. Why is he hanging here now? Here, in Amsterdam? He comes from Spain, doesn't he? Then he hung in St Petersburg for years. This room, as deep red and imposing in size as the ''Spanish Hall'' in the Hermitage, by the way, looks an awful lot like the room where it hung for so long. Incidentally.
Selfies from the Golden Age. The Mauritshuis gives this subtitle with a wink to its new exhibition Dutch self-portraits. With it, the museum seeks a new connection between 17th-century art and today's world. And that attempt has succeeded, thanks in part to the ingenious exhibition design by Jelena Stefanovic of Studio OTW. Since the 2012-2014 renovation and expansion, the...
Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong time. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in the period when modern art was born? Then I correct myself: no, there were many problems and uncertainties back then too. But the new exhibition Colour Unleashed at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag makes me hesitate again. Because the exhibited...
the atmosphere It is 30 degrees in Den Bosch. People with headphones on clap for something we, the passers-by, do not see. At a shopping centre, girls with masks roll on the ground. There is commotion everywhere. Festival Boulevard is in full swing and the whole city seems to join in. The terraces are full and the mood is high. I make my way...
Museum Beelden aan Zee placed a concrete sculpture by 26-year-old artist Catinka Kersten on the patio at the end of March: 'And everyone held their breath during that fraction of centuries'. It consists of five concrete human figures stacked on top of each other, which appear to be made of fabric. Kersten completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague in 2013 with a series of hunting animals in plaster and cotton. The museum, with associated scientific institute and plaster library, is considered one of the figureheads of sculpture in the Netherlands. How did this museum come to choose such a young artist and what does inclusion in its collection mean for her?
With 'The oasis of Matisse', the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has put on a magnificent exhibition. Sixty years after there was last a major retrospective of Matisse in the Netherlands, his work is back on display in all its glory. So alongside 'Late Rembrandt' at the Rijksmuseum, there is another blockbuster in the capital. The thousands of visitors who attended the...
The Amersfoort museum Flehite has been able to acquire two masterpieces with the support of an antiquities association. The oil painting Still life with rose and anemone (1933) by Albert Fiks (1908-1945) and the 'canvas' Dahlias in ginger jar (1917) by Jakob Nieweg were added to the collection. Both paintings are among highlights of the Amersfoort artists' oeuvres. Jakob Nieweg (Hogebeintum 1877) was trained as a pastor....
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