Mondrian to Dutch Design: 100 Years of De Stijl

2017 marks 100 years since the launch of De Stijl, the magazine that impacted modern art and modern design. To commemorate this anniversary, exhibitions and events that examine the path of De Stijl’s key figure Piet Mondrian to Dutch Design have begun around The Netherlands.

De Stijl in 1917

By tracing nature back to its most fundamental principles, Mondrian reached the unprecedented aesthetic concept of a combination of the composition of vertical and horizontal lines and the primary colors of red, yellow and blue. He left behind numerous works based on these principles and together with Theo van Doesburg, launched the magazine De Stijl. Painters, architects, designers and artists from other fields who approved of Mondrian’s aesthetic flocked to the magazine. In addition to art objects, they worked with furniture, household goods, housing and urban planning, and Mondrian’s aesthetic thus permeated daily life.

The Style of Dutch Design in 2017

In the 90s, design trends from the Netherlands created a new force in design worldwide and came to be called “Dutch design.” Emulating Gerrit Rietveld, these artists applied to manufactured goods, an individual style and sense of authorship typically found in artwork. They used a wide variety of colors and materials in experimental endeavors. The design group Droog, one of the driving forces of Dutch design, continues to lead the design world today. The revolution started by De Stijl artists lives on among the artists today of Dutch modern design.

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Mondrian to Dutch Design: 100 Years of De Stijl
Main Events (in chronological order)


Mondriaan and De Stijl　
All year, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

Rietveld Schröder House
All year, Central Museum in Utrecht

Villa Mondrian
All year, Winterswijk (Gelderland)

De Stijl at the Stedelijk
Currently on show until May 21, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Rietveld’s Masterpiece; Long Live De Stijl
March 4 to June 11, Central Museum in Utrecht

The World of Piet Mondrian (permanent collection)
from March 7, Mondriaanhuis, Amersfoort

Discovery of Mondrian
June 3 to September 24, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

The Architecture and Interiors of De Stijl
6June 10 - Sept 17, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

Droog – Ontdek het begin van Dutch Design (Finding the Beginning of Dutch Design)
Sept 23 – Dec 3, Central Museum in Utrecht

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*Other information

Mondrian to Dutch Design(English) :http://www.holland.com/global/tourism/interests/holland-stories/mondrian-to-dutch-design.htm

Events schedule (Dutch) :http://www.holland.com/mtdd/MDD_agenda.pdf

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Hiroshi Sugimoto: Black Box

Overview Foam Museum

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photography exhibit “Black Box” is underway in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Based in New York since the 1970s, Sugimoto has received international acclaim as an artist for his delicate and detailed photographic expression captured by large-format camera.

A Photograph as a Time Machine

The exhibition opens with the series “Seascapes.” The photographs show a sea that is barely discernible by quiet light and waves. It is scenery that has existed since long before the birth of humanity. Sugimoto calls the camera a “time machine.” In “Seascapes,” and in “Diorama” where he photographed taxidermied animals arranged in a staged setting, he projects an ancient scene. In “Henry VIII” he recreates the figures painted in Holbein’s 16th century portraits, and in “Lightening Fields” he reincarnates the experiments conducted by Fox Talbot who was one of the founders of photography to present before us a great discovery of the 19th century.

Capturing Time

Sugimoto incorporates the passage of time into his photographs that capture a single moment that cannot be followed by the eye. In the “Theaters” series he left the camera shutter open during a screening at a theater, photographing the light of an entire movie. The composition of a human eye and a camera are nearly the same. But a person will commit the story of a movie to memory while with the camera, the story disappears but it records the mood of the theater illuminated by light.
With sophisticated and elaborate craftsmanship, Sugimoto’s works gently glow and capture the passage of time amid tranquil light.

Sugimoto: Black Box Until March 8 (open daily)

Foam Museum

Museumeiland 1
Keizersgracht 609
1017 DS Amsterdam
The Netherlands
https://www.foam.org

Opening times:

Monday through Sunday 10:00-18:00 (Monday and Friday until 21:00)

Rodin – Genius at Work

Overview museum, Photo: Ralph Richter,
© Groninger Museum

Famed for his pieces The Gates of Hell and The Thinker, Auguste Rodin is regarded as the father of modern sculpture. Rodin paved the art form’s path into the 20th century through innovative experimentation and bold creation of shapes. The exhibition Rodin – Genius at Work currently at the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands unravels the secrets of Rodin’s creativity with a display of 140 pieces.

Hand of God, Rodin

The exhibition starts with a room called “The Hand of God.” In the center, as if taken from the moment God was creating man, is The Hand of God. The walls are covered with photographs of Rodin’s atelier where more than fifty assistants worked to support the artist who holds the hand of God.

Different Materials

The exhibition displays works of varying materials such as marble, plaster, bronze and ceramics. Sculptures of the same theme impart different impressions depending on the materials and their process of creation. Rodin planned for Eve (fig. 1) together with Adam to stand as large statues at the sides of The Gates of Hell. The Bronze Eve emphasizes the interesting shape of arms encircling a twisted body while the marble figure highlights the female’s soft skin texture and figure’s curves.

Groninger Museum

Located in front of the Groningen train station, the Groninger Museum is a striking building designed by four architects led by the Italian Alessandro Mendini. The museum exhibits a wide-ranging collection, including world-renowned works of the local artists’ association De Ploeg and its collection of Chinese and Japanese ceramics.

Groninger Museum

Museumeiland 1
9711 ME Groningen
The Netherlands
http://www.groningermuseum.nl/en

Opening times:

Tuesday to Sunday 10:00-17:00

Closed:

Every Monday, and Jan 1, Apr 27, Dec 25.

Fra Bartolommeo – The Divine Renaissance Exhibition

The Pavilion and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Photo: studio Hans Wilschut.

Along with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, Fra Bartolommeo was one of the driving forces behind the High Renaissance. He is known for his majestic figures, delicate colors and skilled depiction of the draping of clothes. The exhibition displays 11 paintings and 140 drawings. The number of paintings is limited but span from his early to later pieces.

Owner of the World’s Largest Collection of Fra Bartolommeo Drawings

The Museum Bojimans Van Beuningen owns the largest collection in the world of Fra Bartolommeo’s drawings because its founder Daniel George van Beuningen owned two albums that contained 500 drawings by the painter. A Florence collector had bought the albums in 1792. They were purchased by Van Beuningen in 1940.

The Painter’s Intention Traced Back to the Drawings

There is no other 16th century artist whose drawings survive in such large numbers. For example, more than 60 drawings have been identified as studies for the fresco The Last Judgment. Bartolommeo made numerous drawings before finalizing a figure’s composition or pose. He used a mannequin with movable joints to study a person’s pose. He depicted the differences in personality and emotion that result from minor adjustments of the angle of the neck, the raising of an arm or extension of a knee on the ground. Carefully examining how these would affect the folds in the robes cloaking the bodies, Bartolommeo made numerous sketches before deciding on the best pose. Viewing the drawings in chronological order reveals clearly what the artist paid attention to in his revisions and final decision.
At the exhibition, in addition to the drawings and paintings, photographs of black-and-white printouts of the paintings will be posted near the drawings. The monochrome emphasizes the delineations, allowing viewers to study the similarities between the sketches and painting.

Fra Bartolommeo – The Divine Renaissance Exhibition Until Jan. 15, 2017

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Museumpark 18-20
3015 CX Rotterdam
the Netherlands
http://www.boijmans.nl/en/

Opening times:

Tuesday – Sunday　11:00-17:00
Dec 5、Dec 24, Dec 3　11:00-16:00

Closed:

Mondays and Jan 1, April 27, Dec 25

Magritte: The Treason of Images Exhibition

Fig. 1 René Magritte, La Décalcomanie, 1966, Huile sur toile, 81 × 100 cm, Dr Noémi Perelman Mattis et Dr Daniel C. Mattis, © Adagp, Paris 2016, © Photothèque R. Magritte / Banque d’Images, Adagp, Paris, 2016

Commemorating its 40th anniversary this year, the Centre Pompidou opened “Magritte: The Treason of Images” exhibition on September 27. The Belgian painter Rene Magritte was known as a surrealist who used imagination to its utmost and combined everyday images that on one glance appear unrelated. Magritte attempted to create a world of “hyper reality” where dreams and reality unite without contradicting each other (fig 1). Magritte interacted with philosophers including Michel Foucault whose influences on his work are clear.

The language of Magritte’s pictures

Fig.2 René Magritte, La Trahison des images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe),
1929, Huile sur toile, 60,33 x 81,12 x 2,54 cm, Los Angeles County Museum
of Art. Purchased with funds provided by the Mr. and Mrs. William Preston
Harrison Collection, © Adagp, Paris 2016, © Photothèque R. Magritte
/ Banque d’Images, Adagp, Paris, 2016

This exhibit proposes interpreting Magritte’s work from the viewpoint of ideology and art. Magritte repeatedly employed a number of motifs – curtains, letters, framed spaces and shadows – each with their own meaning. Magritte spoke through his paintings with this pictorial language like a philosopher presenting a well-argued theory. For example, his frames and segmented spaces refer to Plato’s allegory of the cave, and his shadows can be interpreted as the discovery of painting described in Pliny’s Natural History.

This is not a pipe

In “The Treason of Images (this is not a pipe)” (fig. 2), the words “This is not a pipe” are written below the painting. The picture and words seem to contradict each other, but even though the illustration could be mistaken for an actual pipe, it is still an illustration. The conflict between words and imagery has a long history that dates back to the biblical era when Moses, angered by the Israelites idolizing icons, destroyed the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments.

Magritte: The Treason of Images Exhibition until Jan 23, 2017 (closed Tuesdays)

Centre Pompidou

19 Rue Beaubourg
75004 Paris
France
http://www.centrepompidou.fr/en

Opening times:

11:00-23:00　 Closed on Tuesday

Museum Voorlinden Opening

Fig.1 Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar [foto: Pietro Savorelli]

The Museum Voorlinden (fig 1), located in Wassenaar, in the suburbs of The Hague, the Netherlands, opened on September 11. Wim Pijbes, the former head of the national Rijksmuseum was appointed General Director. Voorlinden will exhibit works from the largest private collection in the Netherlands, gathered over fifty years by Joop van Caldenborgh. A portion of the artworks was shown in 1995, but the opening of Voorlinden will finally allow the entire collection to be displayed.

The Largest Collection

Fig.2 Richard Serra (1938) Open Ended (2007-2008)
Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar [foto: Antoine van Kaam]

Ever since he purchased his first piece when he was 16 years old, Caldenborgh has been visiting exhibitions and galleries both in and out of the Netherlands and collecting art. His interests are broad, including paintings, sculptures, prints and photographs. The construction of Voorlinden allowed his largest piece, Richard Serra’s Open Ended (fig. 2), to be shown for the first time. The sculpture weighs a total of 216 tons and required a reinforcement of the museum floor. Also on display are the unrealistically large and exhaustively detailed recreations of people in Ron Mueck’s Couple under an Umbrella and Leandro Erlich’s Swimming Pool, where viewers can observe people in a pool.

Nature and Art

Voorlinden was built on a large and verdant 40-hectar plot of land. Transparent glass walls along part of the building give visitors a sense of being out in nature while actually inside. Surrounding the structure are sixty outdoor sculptures by Henry Moore, Sol LeWitt and others. Guided tours of the sculptures are also available.

Museum Voorlinden

Buurtweg 90
2244 AG Wassenaar
The Netherlands
http://www.voorlinden.nl/?lang=en

Opening times:

Open daily 11:00-17:00

The Essential Art Space Opened in January 2016

fig.1 ©AkzoNobel Art Foundation

The AkzoNobel Art Foundation is commemorating its 20th anniversary with an inaugural showing of its corporate collection. The exhibition is at The Essential Art Space, which opened in January 2016 on the ground floor of the corporate headquarters building in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (fig.1)

AkzoNobel N.V.

The parent organization of the foundation, Akzonobel N.V., is the world’s largest paints and coatings company and a producer of specialty chemicals. Headquartered in Amsterdam with offices in 80 countries, its products are used not only for planes, ships and housing, but also widely for devices such as computers, cosmetics and foods.

Opening Exhibition: Culture of Colors

The AkzoNobel Art Foundation has been collecting contemporary art for twenty years. The collection includes a large number of avant-garde pieces such as groundbreaking paintings and video art, and 3D works built with unusual materials. The opening exhibit “Culture of Colors” introduces this unique collection through the concept of color, a motif that is common to both the parent company and its art. The works are categorized around though-provoking themes such as the Power of Pigments centered on Peter Laurens Mol’s The Total Amount that displays pigments from 100 years ago. Sublime Splendor gathers works that reflect the tone and texture, and fluidity of paints, and Colors of Identity shows portraits of members of various races.

The Essential Art Space is open to the public. Admission is free.

The Essential Art Space

Christian Neefestraat 2,
1077 WW Amsterdam
The Netherlands
http://www.artfoundation.akzonobel.com/en

Opening times:

Monday-Friday 10:00-17:00