Category: Uncategorized

Once every few years, a new art museum is conceived in the Netherlands. Not every conception, however, leads to birth. More often than not, they revolve around the collections of private collectors, deemed museum-worthy—at least by their owners. One notable failure was the museum intended to house the Scheringa Collection. The 10,000-square-metre building, designed by… Continue reading EICAS’ New Love

With the word nostalgia, you can go in almost any direction —except the right one. That familiar Dutch saying was my immediate reaction after reading the editorials in the special Nostalgia issue of the art magazine Metropolis M. This despite the editor-in-chief’s attempt to pre-empt criticism by arguing that our present moment calls for a… Continue reading Windmill Nostalgia

Part II On my way back from Paris and Disneyland, I visited the MUDAM (Museum of Modern Art) in Luxembourg, on the third of May, where I encountered a blissful Sunday calm. I had come for the exhibitions of Ivan Cheng and Simon Fujiwara. Not well prepared, I stepped to my surprise into Fujiwara’s “worlds… Continue reading The Performer’s Conquest

On Wednesday, March 31, artist Dries Verhoeven and curator Rieke Vos presented their plan for the Dutch contribution to the Venice Biennale in Theater Utrecht, a space Verhoeven clearly feels at home in. However varied his projects may have been, they’ve so far landed more comfortably in the world of theater than in the visual… Continue reading Doorbell Policy

At the end of last year, the exhibition Minimal was on view at La Bourse – Pinault Collection in Paris. It was a remarkable exhibition, featuring first-rate works from the Pinault Collection itself as well as from the renowned Dia Art Foundation, of which guest curator Jessica Morgan is director. A special edition of Beaux… Continue reading The Minimal Experience

In the Volkskrant newspaper of January 21, following a tumultuous week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Sander Schimmelpenninck gives the media a cold shower in his column to cool them down from their euphoria about the former prime minister of the Netherlands, now NATO chief, Mark Rutte. He speaks of ‘chauvinistic folklore’ as… Continue reading My Eye on Jan Dibbets

The word ‘Hitweek’, ‘the trade magazine’ for ‘twieners’, the name editor Willem de Ridder came up with, still has a magical ring to it. A weekly magazine, or should we call it a newspaper given its format, which was on sale throughout the Netherlands for thirty cents (“drie dubbeltjes”). Magical because it sums up everything… Continue reading Hitweek’s Fashion

Karesansui (Zen garden), installation with works by Shinkichi Tajiri and Ferdi in the exhibition The Restless Wanderer, Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht (2 December 2023–12 May 2024) Photo: Marga van Mechelen It is not uncommon, after national elections, for commentators to lament the lack of attention paid to certain issues during the campaign. This time, it was climate… Continue reading Rosy and not so rosy images

photo: Lenny Rothenberg No matter how many times you visit the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of World Cultures), it never fails to impress: a futuristic-looking building crowned with its enormous curved roof, an effect amplified by the reflection in the ponds at the entrance. Once inside, however, you have to make a mental… Continue reading Global Fascisms

Tapestry in the background Composition by Madeleine Bosscher (1942) Art with a Capital A—that’s how the Province of North Brabant regards its art collection, which received special attention last summer thanks to exhibitions devoted to the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930–2017) at the Textile Museum in Tilburg and in ’s-Hertogenbosch. The largest work in the… Continue reading Art with a Capital A