intensely dutch

Text only in this posting. Images were in original.

Exhibition Review June 2009


Exhibition: intensely dutch
– 50 years of modern Dutch art
Art Gallery of New South Wales
5 June – 23 August 2009


Gerrit Benner Fries landschap (Frisian landscape) 1970 Groninger Museum, Groningen © A G Benner 2009

Uncompromising, confronting, optimistic – after the Second World War a young generation of Dutch artists took to modernity as never before. For them it was a time of renewal.
(Quote from exhibition leaflet – Art Gallery of NSW).

This exhibition of works by fifteen Dutch artists was brought together from both Public and Private Collections of ten Australian and overseas galleries and museums. The exhibition coincides with the celebration of The Dutch Australia Cultural Centre’s 25th anniversary and offers another reminder of the historical links between the two countries.

The works represent 50 years of modern Dutch art. These artists are perhaps better known in Europe but some of them have Australian connections either through influences on Australian artists such as John Olsen or by their personal emigration to Australia, as with Jan Riske.

Like Picasso, the artists of the group known as CoBrA (Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam), took inspiration from primitive art, the art of children and the art of those in mental institutions. CoBrA brought together the artists, Asger Jorn (from Copenhagen), Joseph Noiret and Christian Dotremont (from Brussels) and Constant, Corneille and Karel Appel (from Amsterdam) who were all living in Paris at the time. They were joined by other artists who were also looking for alternative forms of expression to that of the French Surrealists. This group only lasted a few years, (1948-1951) however it had a lasting influence on art in Holland, Europe and America.

Brought together are examples of art which were very experimental in their time, from the abstraction of the human figure in De Koonings charcoal figure to the wonderful bright colours of Gerrit Benners gouache painting titled “Zomer” (Summer) 1970.

An earlier work of Benners, “Trees” 1955, is rendered in mainly primary colours of oils applied with lots of texture while “Stilleven (Still Life)” 1953 by Jaap Nanninga uses more subdued darker tones of black, grey, green/blue in pastels and gouache.

Willem de Kooning | The Netherlands/United States | 1904-97 | Two trees on Mary Street . . . Amen! 1975 | Oil on canvas | 203.8 x 177.8cm

The work by Willem De Kooning included in this exhibition, “Two trees on Mary Street – Amen!” 1975, is typical of his later expressive abstract style.

This exhibition is not all paintings. It includes several very interesting collage and sculptural pieces. Jan J Schoonhoven created pieces using paper mache and acrylic paints. The earlier works are in grey and black while the later works are in white. The two most representative of his work during the 1960’s are in white, one is a rectangle filled with intriguing rhythmical grids while the other is a similar style though circular.

Jaap Wagemaker is represented by his oil and burlap collages, “Verdigris or Copper Oxide” 1958 is mostly green with touches of black and burnt sienna with the edges of burlap showing through unpainted. The work titled “Les Traces” includes oils, timber and copper in tones reminiscent of the tones employed by Tom Roberts work of an earlier era, “Bailed up”. While the style is completely different this work by Wagemaker has echoes of dry earth and horses. It is complimented in this exhibition by his brush and ink drawing on buff paper, “Composites” 1964, which has a similar theme to “Traces”.

Somewhere between a painting and a sculpture is the large dramatic piece by Bram Bogart, “Daybreak” (1997). A former contemporary of the CoBrA group, Bogart chose to take his own path and combines his skills as a sculptor, ceramist and painter in these very large works. A combination of oils and his own mix of mortar, the bright yellow of “Daybreak” stands out, dominating the space.
Bram Bogart - Daybreak, 1997
The Australian Dutch artist, Jan Riske’s amazingly intricate works are well represented. Made of the contents of hundreds of squeezed tubes of oil paints his textured paintings invite the viewer to have a closer inspection.

"I carved my own path" … Jan Riske with one of his detailed works. He is one of 15 artists in the Art Gallery of NSW's Intensely Dutch exhibition.
Photo: Jon Reid









A magnificent exhibition, Intensely Dutch, provides a powerful overview of the modern art of Holland since the Second World War.










References:

 Personal Notes of Exhibition
 Exhibition flyers
• Websites:
o http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/current/intensely_dutch
o http://www.cobra-museum.nl/en/cobra.html
o http://dacc.com.au/indexnext.html
o http://blogs.rnw.nl/curiousorange/2009/06/05/intensely-dutch/
o http://qag.qld.gov.au/collection/contemporary_international_art/willem_de_kooning
o http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/old-master-from-riverwood-via-rotterdam/2009/06/04/1243708567218.html
o http://www.jaski.nl/Kunstenaars/BramBogart/tabid/167/Default.aspx