Legendary voguer Willi Ninja wearing Thierry Mugler body piece, NYC, June 1989, Photo © Chantal Regnault- Deep in Vogue Kunsthal Rotterdam
Last year despite lockdown, I made several interviews with leading dutch museums such as : Voorlinden museum <Barbara Bos (Barbara Bos, Voorlinden museum : 2021 highlig) Mauritshuis <Ariane van Suchtelen (Ariane van Suchtelen, the Mauritshuis museum ) and Kunsthal Rotterdam <Eva van Diggelen (Eva van Diggelen, Kunsthal Rotterdam : national scope and international allure ). The next season and MUSEA presentation in Paris Musée Montmartre, reveals many unmissable events : The Frick Collection at the Mauritshuis and its bicentenary, the first Etel Adnan Retrospective in The Netherlands by Van Gogh Museum, Calder Now at Kunsthal Rotterdam, the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of Beat Zoderer by Museum Voorlinden or TEFAF 35th-anniversary edition.
Mauritshuis
In 2022, it will be two hundred years since the Mauritshuis first opened its doors to the public. The museum will be celebrating its bicentenary with special exhibitions and events throughout the year. The exhibition In Full Bloom opens on 16 February with the finest flower still lifes from the period 1600-1725. To coincide with the opening, the façade of the Mauritshuis will also be adorned with an ‘impossible bouquet’ of flowers. During the summer, photographers – both established names and new talent – will be taking inspiration from the Mauritshuis collection and building. The summer months will also see the first outdoor Street Art museum, with large murals based on the collection in various locations around The Hague. And no fewer than 200 writers have also been inspired, each contributing a piece based on a work of art in the Mauritshuis to the book Pen Meets Paint. The year concludes with an exhibition of Dutch masters from the 17th century in collaboration with The Frick Collection in New York.
2022 celebrates the inspiration that for the past 200 years the world-famous collection at the Mauritshuis has provided for countless art lovers, visitors and artists around the world.
Pen meets Paint
Presentation: 20 January
What happens when two art forms – the literary and the visual arts – come together? For its bicentenary, the Mauritshuis asked 200 writers to draw inspiration from the museum’s collection. The crème de la crème of today’s literary community, from at home and abroad, participated in this remarkable book. One writer; one work of art from the Mauritshuis; 200 words per contribution – never before have so many authors appeared together in a single publication. To name just a few of the contributors: Isabel Allende, Margaret Atwood, Nicci French, Arnon Grunberg, Nino Haratischwili, Murat Isik, Hilary Mantel, Cees Nooteboom, Connie Palmen, Sholeh Rezazadeh, Simon Schama, Donna Tartt and Tommy Wieringa.
In Full Bloom
17 February – 1 June
The anniversary year 2022 gets off to a festive start with – what else – an enormous bouquet of flowers. In Full Bloom showcases the most beautiful flower still lifes from the period 1600-1725 from both the museum’s own collection and abroad. Roses, tulips, columbines and carnations, as well as Batavia roses, amethyst hyacinths, Siberian flag irises, Persian tulips and cypress herb will bring scent and colour to the Mauritshuis. The Dutch flower still life was one of the most popular painting genres in the 17th century. The exhibition pays particular attention to the women painters active in this genre, who created a furore in flower painting and played an important role in the science of flowers and plants. In Full Bloom brings together some 30 paintings, alongside prints, drawings, flower and tulip albums and botanical publications.
The Impossible Bouquet
From 16 February
The flower painters went to great lengths to bring together all the flowers from a single growing season in one vase: ‘the impossible bouquet’. To coincide with the opening of In Full Bloom, the museum façade will be decorated with (sustainable) artificial flowers. More will be added every few weeks until the entire building is hidden behind the ‘impossible bouquet’, inspired by Jan Davidsz de Heem’s painting Vase with Flowers from 1670 (see image). There will also be special flower boxes in the museum forecourt, filled with real flowers in full bloom. Tom Postma Design in Amsterdam is behind the floral design (see artist impression).
Flash / Back
1 June – 16 October
During the summer of our bicentenary year, photography takes centre stage. The Mauritshuis will mirror its permanent collection with contemporary homegrown photography. Famous photographers, as well as new talents in the world of art and documentary photography, will be invited to take inspiration from the Mauritshuis collection and building. Which masters are they inspired by? How will they interpret our 17th-century art? The result – new photos by these contemporary masters – will be displayed in the permanent collection, alongside the paintings by the old masters, one in each of the 16 rooms. The photographers taking part are: Sara Blokland, Morad Bouchakour, Anton Corbijn, Elspeth Diederix, Desirée Dolron, Rineke Dijkstra, Kadir van Lohuizen, Sanja Marušić, Vincent Mentzel, Erwin Olaf, Kevin Osepa, Ahmet Polat, Carla van de Puttelaar, Viviane Sassen, Dustin Thierry and Stephan Vanfleteren.
Mauritshuis Murals
Spring/Summer
The Mauritshuis wants to celebrate its bicentenary together with the residents of The Hague with a special project: the first outdoor Street Art museum! In collaboration with The Hague Street Art, large murals will be created in various locations around the city. These works of art will be created by various Street Art artists, including established names and up-and-coming talent, with the Mauritshuis collection serving as a source of inspiration. Big names from the Street Art scene will be contributing to the project, including Nina Valkhoff, the duo Super A and Colli van de Sluijs.
Hello Vermeer!
9 July – 28 August
Families with children aged 3 to 11 can learn about Vermeer in a playful way through various activities at the museum. During the summer of 2019, families were introduced to Rembrandt in the hands-on family exhibition Hello Rembrandt! Now children can follow in the footsteps of another great Dutch master: Johannes Vermeer. Families can find out more about the Dutch painter: Which paints did he use in his paintings? How did he play with light? Various fun activities and creative workshops mean that younger visitors can really step into the shoes of this famous 17th-century artist. And the best part? Admission is free for everyone aged 18 and under (and the exhibition is of course also in English!)
The Frick Collection at the Mauritshuis
29 September 2022 – 15 January 2023
The bicentenary year concludes with a very special exhibition: ten paintings from The Frick Collection in New York. This will be a one-time opportunity to view this selection of paintings in Europe, which (with one exception) left the continent more than a hundred years ago and have been in the United States ever since. One of the greatest masterpieces on view will be Rembrandt’s self-portrait from 1658. The painter immortalised himself many times, but many consider this self-portrait to be one of the very best. The founder of the The Frick Collection was the industrialist Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), who also built the house where the present-day museum is located.
Museum Singer Laren
Jan Sluijters and the Modernists
9 March 2022 – 8 May 2022
On 10 April 2018 a leading Dutch newspaper ran a front-page story about a major donation to Museum Singer Laren. The museum was to be gifted an impressive private collection – the Nardinc Collection, consisting of more than forty works by Jan Sluijters (1881-1957) and over seventy works by other modernists of his time. Singer Laren will be celebrating this extraordinary gift from 9 March 2022 to 8 May 2022 with an exhibition entitled Sluijters and the Modernists – The Nardinc Collection.
The work of Jan Sluijters will be the common thread in the exhibition, showcased in five thematic rooms, among the work of other Dutch modernists. A plethora of exuberant images will be on display, painted with feeling, bold colours and loose brushwork, the pleasure of painting almost tangible in the resulting artworks. Come and enjoy the vibrant luminist landscapes, exuberant floral works, swinging dancers and captivating portraits in the new Nardinc galleries, which will be opening for the first time next spring.
Théo van Rysselberghe – Painter of the Sun
17 May 2022 – 4 September 2022
From 17 May 2022 to 4 September 2022 Singer Laren will present an ode to Belgian artist Théo van Rysselberghe (1862 – 1926), in an exhibition that pays tribute to one of the great masters of light and colour. Van Rysselberghe is regarded as the leading Belgian exponent of pointillism.
On a trip to Morocco in 1888 Van Rysselberghe literally and figuratively saw the light, whereupon he began using the pointillist technique, applying small dots of unmixed colour to the canvas to express light and colour in the most sublime way. He would continue to use this technique for the rest of his career.
The exhibition will trace Van Rysselberghe’s development on the basis of his favourite subjects: society portraits, sun-drenched landscapes from Flanders to Morocco, sea views and the female nude. His entire body of work is an ode to the beauty of life and to painting itself.
Kees van Dongen
17 January 2023 – 7 May 2023
From 17 January to 7 May 2023 Museum Singer Laren will be showing a hundred paintings and drawings by Kees van Dongen (1877-1968). The focus will be on the period he spent in Paris, which brought him global fame.
Kees van Dongen was one of the first Dutch artists to go to Paris around 1900 in search of artistic innovation. There, he embraced the avant-garde and in 1905 Picasso invited him to move into a studio at the Bateau-Lavoir. In liberal Montmartre, Van Dongen found himself at the centre of all that was new in art. In this environment – following in the footsteps of Vincent Van Gogh – he evolved into a painter of figures and a great innovator in his use of colour and his brushwork. Thanks to his time in Paris, his many international exhibitions and a combination of sheer talent and audacity, Van Dongen became one of the leading exponents of fauvism. Artistic revolution and sensuality became indelibly associated with the name Van Dongen.
Rijksmuseum
Revolusi ! Independant Indonesia
11 february- 6 june 2022
In spring 2022 Rijksmuseum will present Revolusi ! on the impassioned pursuit of a free Indonesia after a long period of colonial domination. How people fought, how they negociated and how the revolution defined their lives. The research project focuses on documents in collections in Indonesia, the Netherlands and other countries. Posters, pamphlets, magazines, photographs, films, paintings, drawings and historical objects all fall within the scope. An important element of this research is the provenance history associated with the documents. This goes in particular for documents and objects seized by Dutch authorities during the revolution in Indonesia. In addition, special attention is paid to the personal stories to which the documents testify.
Vincent Mentzel : the power of the image
28 january – 6 june 2022
Vincent Mentzel has long been one of the Nderlands most iconic photographers. As a photojournalist at NRC he helped define the new image. As well as reporting on the national public scene for many years, he travelled the world to cover political and other curent affairs. He has multiple World Press Photo and Silver Camera Awards to his name.
Barbara Hepworth in the Rijksmuseum Gardens
28 may -23 october 2022
The 9th edition of the annual sculpture exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Gardens will be devoted to the english sculptor Dame Jocelyn Barabara Hepworth. She is one of the key figures of British modernist sculpture.
TEFAF 35th edition
In 2022, The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) will be celebrating its 35th anniversary. TEFAF has been devoted to championing quality in art with its annual art fairs in Maastricht and New York. Presenting 7,000 years of art from over 250 exhibitors, these fairs are unrivaled in their depth and breadth, bringing together a community of the world’s top art dealers and experts to attract art lovers and buyers from around the world. The annual TEFAF Maastricht fair attracts over 70.000 visitors, with the majority of guests – invited to our early access and preview days – travelling to Maastricht from international destinations, including the U.S. With many of TEFAF’s visitors spending multiple days in and around the city whilst enjoying the fair, TEFAF and the wonderful city of Maastricht have built a close relationship over the last 35 years, as well as with MECC (the conference center hosting TEFAF fairs). By means of the working group ‘TEFAF & the City’, both Maastricht and TEFAF are committed to linking TEFAF and its visitors to the wider Maastricht region, with TEFAF’s visitors enjoying all facilities that Maastricht and the region.
The Van Gogh Museum
Van Gogh’s Olive Groves and the First Etel Adnan Retrospective in The Netherlands
Two exhibitions will be on display at the Van Gogh Museum in spring 2022, each on one floor of the museum’s Exhibition Wing. Following the current exhibition The Potato Eaters: Mistake or Masterpiece?, which is on show until 13 February 2022, an exhibition focusing on Van Gogh’s olive grove paintings opens on 11 March. Van Gogh and the Olive Groves explores the significance of olive trees to Vincent van Gogh and his ambitions when creating a paintings series of them. The exhibition is a collaboration with The Dallas Museum of Art (US). Opening on 20 May and on display throughout the summer is the first retrospective of work by Etel Adnan (Beirut, 1925 – Paris, 2021) in the Netherlands. Adnan, renowned for her vivid paintings, died on Sunday at the age of 96. The exhibition Colour as Language features Adnan’s colourful paintings, ‘leporellos’ and literary works, which are displayed in dialogue with several of Van Gogh’s works.
Various other presentations are also planned elsewhere in the museum, including Amour by Maurice Denis. The French artist’s romantic print series goes on display in February, just in time for Valentine’s Day. The museum will also host a range of activities; check the website for the latest programme.
Van Gogh and the Olive Groves In spring 2022, the Van Gogh Museum is dedicating an exhibition to the important series of paintings that Vincent van Gogh made during his year-long stay at the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Van Gogh was fascinated by the ever-changing ambiance and colours of the olive trees, which are so highly characteristic of the Southern French landscape. Van Gogh and the Olive Groves is the first exhibition to explore the significance of olive trees to Van Gogh, and what he set out to achieve when painting this remarkable series. The exhibition reveals how Van Gogh experimented with different techniques, colours and compositions. He used swirling and rhythmic brushstrokes, working with bold contours, stylised forms and carefully-considered colour combinations. Van Gogh produced a total of 15 paintings of olive groves, attempting to capture them as expressively and powerfully as he could. Three of these works are now in the Van Gogh Museum collection, and the rest are scattered across Europe and America. This remarkable exhibition is reuniting this group of paintings for the first time. Van Gogh and the Olive Groves – the culmination of years of research – is a collaboration with The Dallas Museum of Art.
Van Gogh and the Olive Groves is on display from 11 March to 12 June 2022, in the Exhibition Wing
First Etel Adnan retrospective in the Netherlands In August 2021, the Van Gogh Museum was delighted to announce the first retrospective exhibition of Etel Adnan (1925-2021) to be held in the Netherlands: Colour as Language. Emilie Gordenker, Director of the Van Gogh Museum: ‘We have been working closely with Etel Adnan for some time now. The sad news recently reached us that Etel Adnan passed away at the age of 96. She was a remarkable woman who will be sorely missed. It is a great sadness that Etel Adnan will not be able to see the exhibition herself, but we are deeply honoured and thankful that we will be able to show the retrospective of her work in our museum next year’.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Adnan only gained broad recognition with her paintings and drawings 15 years ago, but was already internationally-renowned for her literature and poetry. Adnan’s art is often based on the landscape. Just like Vincent van Gogh, she uses a characteristic colour palette and painting style to convey the power of nature on the canvas. Colour as Language focuses on Adnan’s paintings, often simplified landscapes with intense colours and abstract forms, which are presented alongside several works by Van Gogh. The exhibition also features ‘leporellos’ – so-called harmonica books for which Adnan is renowned –, tapestries and literary work by the artist. A retrospective of work by Adnan of this kind has never before been exhibited in the Netherlands. It is a true explosion of colours from a multifaceted artist who moved between different cultures and languages for nearly a century.
Colour as Language, the first retrospective of work by Etel Adnan in the Netherlands, is on display at the Van Gogh Museum from 20 May to 4 September 2
On display from 7 October 2022 up and until 8 January 2023, in the exhibition wing.
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) is world-famous for his golden and decorative works, his landscapes with colours that flow together like carpets, and striking drawings of voluptuous women. Where did he find inspiration for his multi-faceted art?
This unique exhibition explores the influence of the international avant-garde on the work of Gustav Klimt. At this first-ever large-scale exhibition of Klimt’s work in the Netherlands, dozens of his works are on display, from soft, pastel-like paintings to colourful, monumental women’s portraits.
Museum Voorlinden
Picasso-Giacometti
In collaboration with the Musée national Picasso and the Fondation Giacometti, Museum Voorlinden presents the first exhibition dedicated to the work of two of the most important artists of the twentieth century: Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti.
19 February – 15 May 2022
Museum Voorlinden proudly presents the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of Beat Zoderer (1955). With everyday materials, he makes colourful objects, installations and sculptures, each of which is an attempt to create order out of chaos. Zoderer is one of the most prominent artists in Switzerland, yet he is hardly known in the Netherlands. Voorlinden is going to change this. The solo exhibition can be seen from 19 February to 15 May 2022.
26 May – 25 September 2022
In the summer of 2022, Voorlinden will be presenting a major retrospective of Antony Gormley (1950). This British artist is praised worldwide for his art, which deals with the relationship between the human body and the space around us.
9 October 2022 – 19 January 2023
In this retrospective exhibition Voorlinden brings together early and recent work by Giuseppe Penone (1947). Iconic works and space-filling installations are alternated with intimate sculptures and drawings.
Teylers Museum opens unique historic Haarlem House
On 5 December 2021, the Pieter Teyler House will open as a new wing to Teylers Museum. The Pieter Teyler House was formerly the residence of Pieter Teyler (1702- 1778), founder of the oldest museum in the Netherlands. Some rooms in this unique listed building are among the best-preserved historical interiors of the eighteenth-century Netherlands. The Pieter Teyler House is, however, much more than an historic house. Here, Pieter Teyler’s intellectual legacy comes to life. He believed, for example, that every person had the right to pursue freedom and happiness, and that the world would be a better place as a result. According to Teyler, truth can only be established if people think for themselves. In the Pieter Teyler House, visitors can see the continuing relevance of his ideals and how they led to the foundation of Teylers Museum.
Rich history
Pieter Teyler was a wealthy Haarlem resident who bequeathed his fortune and house to a foundation with the express purpose of improving the lives of all. This resulted in, among other things, Teylers Museum, which opened in 1784, consisting only of the Oval Room at the time. Passing through the long, impressive marble hallway of what once was Teyler’s home, visitors entered the Oval Room and marvelled at the latest scientific inventions and contemporary artworks. Famous visitors such as Einstein, Emperor Napoleon and Tsar Alexander paid a call. The house is intimately connected to the museum, in terms of both physical structure and essence.
Extensive restoration
The 1,115-square-metre building consists of four linked houses, and the restoration is returning it to its 18th-century state as much as possible. Authentic architectural elements often long lost elsewhere have been preserved here and are currently being restored to their former glory: lush stucco ceilings, a long marble hallway and beautiful mantelpieces. In November 2019, after an initial phase focused on repairing the foundations and on making structural improvements, work started on the shell of the building. In order to interfere as little as possible with the original character of the house, nearly all fittings and installations have been concealed between the floors and the ceilings. Since March 2021, work has progressed on the finishing touches: painting, applying wall coverings, restoring the mantelpieces, stucco and furniture etc. The restoration has been made possible by close cooperation among the museum, the national heritage sector, the restoration architect, various experts and researchers, contractors and consultants.
Historical colour schemes and new finishes
Vital to the restoration of an historical interior is the palette used on the woodwork, walls and historical elements, such as the wooden staircase and stucco decorations. In order to determine an appropriate historical palette and soft furnishings, colour and interior experts were consulted.
House of the Enlightenment
The Pieter Teyler House is one of the few places in the world where the Enlightenment is a tangible presence. Pieter Teyler thought practical inventions and discoveries were the best ways of making the world a better place.
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