Freedom – The Fifty Key Dutch Artworks Since 1968 is an ambitious and somewhat unconventional project will feature the fifty ‘key artworks’, the leading works produced in the Netherlands over the past fifty years. Freedom will be deliberately subjective, intended both as an invitation to debate and as a declaration of love for Dutch art. As such, Freedom will be unmissable for anyone who wants to see all the top art produced in the Netherlands over the past fifty years brought together in one show.
Freedom is being curated by art critic and author Hans den Hartog Jager (b. 1968). He has created a number of other exhibitions for Museum de Fundatie: More Light (2010) about the sublime in contemporary art, More Power (2014) about the possibility or impossibility of artists influencing processes in society and Behold the Man (2016), a portrait gallery that presented an overview both of social change and of developments in art over the past hundred years.
In these times of fragmentation, when the meaning of many things that for decades were taken for granted in the Netherlands is being called into question, we want to show the essential power of art: to open up new vistas, to challenge entrenched values, ethical standards and forms, and to reflect and anticipate the spirit of the age. That is why we have opted for ‘freedom’ as the underlying theme. This word has acquired a curious, almost populist political overtone in the Netherlands in recent years. Fifty years ago ‘freedom’ denoted the revolutionary developments that were breaking out of existing patterns, but now it has come to symbolise clinging to ‘authentic Dutch values’. At the same time, it is easy to maintain that a quest for freedom, independence and uniqueness has remained a core value of contemporary art throughout this period.
With the deliberate, almost classic choice of fifty ‘crucial’ works, we hope to highlight the main elements that constantly recur in the current debate. Art should unashamedly show what it can contribute to ideas, what a unique role it can play in society, whether it be a matter of the importance of a tradition (artistic or otherwise), the way in which art represents national identity, or the degree to which it reflects changing relationships in society. However, just as important is the fact that the exhibition will set out to show visitors how much fantastic art has been produced in the Netherlands over the past fifty years, from Jan Dibbets’ Perspective Correction (1968) to Ria van Eyks My Woven Diary (1976-77), from René Daniels’ Aux Déon (1985) to Natasja Kensmil’s Self-portrait with Cross (1999) and from Guido van der Werve’s Number Eight: Everything Is Going To Be Alright (2009) to Melanie Bonajo’s Night Soil #1 (2016). For decades, art in the Netherlands has been strong, vibrant and free – and it is time to put it firmly in the spotlight.
By bringing so many ‘key artworks’ of the past few decades together, we hope to re-energise the debate on the role of art in society. Ultimately, however, we hope above all that Freedom will be a celebration of the power of art, with an exhibition and a book designed to bring pleasure, inform and provoke thought, so important in the world today.
A book of the same name will be published by Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep to accompany the exhibition.
Source: Museum de Fundatie
Rineke Dijkstra New Mothers (1994)
Roy Villevoye Kó (Showing Primary Colors in Kombai) (1995)
‘Kó (Showing Primary Colors in Kombai), 1995 by #RoyVillevoye is one of the #keydutchartworks of #Freedom at #MuseumdeFundatie #Fundatie #Zwolle . . Roy Villevoye’s series Kó (Showing Primary Colors in Kombai) consists of three photographs which jointly comprise a panoramic view of a #jungle . In each of the photographs two #Kombai tribesmen, surrounded by the jungle of Papua New Guinea, are holding up a large sheet of paper representing a primary color. These are not the classic #primarycolors (red, yellow and blue) but magenta, cyan and yellow – the colors with which the prints are made, and which do not occur in nature. This lends an odd sort of tension to the whole: everything in these photographs – the trees, the lush growth, the men – exudes nature, causing the sheets of color to have the appearance of aliens who have just arrived from a different, harsh, artificial world. But wait a minute... That world, that nature is in fact conveyed to us as a printed photograph consisting of... magenta, cyan and yellow. The Papuans are therefore holding, as it were, the building blocks with which they themselves have been constructed. Does Villevoye wish to imply that, despite the initial impression that these are two entirely different worlds, they actually cannot do without each other? . .
Jan Dibbets Perspective Correction (1968)
This work was made in a park in Amsterdam. It is concerned with illusion and reality, the difference between what the camera sees and what the eye sees. As its title suggests, Dibbets wanted to 'correct' the recessive perspective of a large area of ground. He decided to use light coloured rope that would clearly mark off a cross shaped area of grass. He used much thicker rope for the two top, more distant, right-angles, so that they would appear to be in the same plane as those at the bottom of the photograph. The nearest right angles are approximately eight inches long, whereas those farthest away are each over thirty feet long. Grass was chosen because it did not have obvious perspectival references.
Daan van Golden Youth is an Art (1997)
See also
Youth is an art ( & Dying too ) Pop-art Artist Daan van Golden (1936-2017) Photography
Hans Eijkelboom With My Family (1973)
‘With My Family’ (1973) by #HansEijkelboom, one of the #keydutchartworks of #Freedom at #Fundatie #Zwolle . . Hans Eijkelboom’s photographic series #WithMyFamily is a four-part #portrait of the artist with his wife and two children. The form is a typical family #snapshot, the kind seen so often that boredom sets in from the very moment one’s eyes land on it. See, there we have the young 1970s father with mid-length hair and a mustache; his wife has bangs and a placid look in her eyes; the kids look a bit too eager to shirk the seriousness of the photo opportunity; and the interior abounds with a feel-good factor – it all makes perfect sense. Except for one thing. In each of the portraits of With My Family, Eijkelboom appears with a different woman and different children. But at the same time all four portraits seem to be entirely authentic. . .
Viviane Sassen Lexicon (2005-2011)
Lexicon, 2014
Viviane's first photo book in Japan, "LEXICON" includes the series by the same title which was chosen by Massimiliano Gioni to be part of The Encyclopedic Palace at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013). The thirty-one images, encompassing iconic and more recent ones, wove together the themes recurring in her work: death, mourning, the fear of being alone and the longing for an emotional connection. The profound sensitivity behind the vivid images is enhanced by a delicate book design and the use of special Japanese paper.
Hans van Houwelingen Lely’s Column (2002-2004)
Zuil van Lely
De twee andere kunstwerken waarmee Den Hartog Jager in deze expositie een lijntje naar buiten legt, brengen ons naar Flevoland. Via een webcam kijken we uit op het stadhuis van Lelystad waar de 36 meter hoge Zuil van Lely (2002-04) staat, een ontwerp van Hans van Houwelingen. ,,Deze kunstenaar gaf hiermee het gezichtsloze Lelystad een ambitieus gezichtsbepalend kunstwerk. Zo kreeg de stad toch een centrum en identiteit.” Het vierde uitstapje is de Engelenzender van Moniek Toebosch. De in 2012 overleden kunstenares liet een muziekstuk maken dat tussen 1994 en 2000 alleen te horen was op de Houtribdijk in het IJsselmeer. Er stonden zelfs ANWB-borden met de aankondiging: Engelen/Angels FM98.0. De Engelenzender zond 24 uur per dag uit via een computer in de PTT-toren van Lelystad. In samenwerking met de erven Toebosch heeft Museum de Fundatie nu de app Engelenzender gemaakt zodat de compositie weer op dit 26 kilometer lange traject is te beluisteren.
