Exhibitions

© anthony weller

contemporary art

Jeff Koons Sculptures

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The work and career of artist Jeff Koons explores the meaning of art and spectacle in a media-saturated era, while adopting an aesthetic that accentuates the consumer culture that emerged at the time. Koons' work undermines the division between 'good taste' and 'bad taste', mixing 'high', 'low' culture and kitsch. His works (from the 1980s to the present) span a wide spectrum of media and techniques - from his pop art sculptures depicting everyday objects from balloon animals to teddy bears.

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© iris van herpen

contemporary art

Iris van Herpen

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Widely heralded as one of fashion’s most forward-thinking designers, Iris van Herpen discovered fashion for the first time in her grandmother’s attic, where she unearthed a mini-museum of garments and costumes that opened her eyes to another decade. Trained in classical ballet and throughout her career, the designer has been fascinated by fluidity and the entangled art of movement. The mercurial dance in which the body and mind intersect have perpetually propelled Van Herpen’s sensorial design philosophy and paved the way for more conscious forms of fashion. Contemplating movement as a metamorphic force enables these ethereal garments to extend from the human body, sculpting their forms into multi-dimensional silhouettes. Movement adds another layer to Van Herpen's craft. Her vision is guided by the human anatomy and the way the woman moves, making these other-worldly looking garments adored by clientele worldwide.

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De Luan / Alamy Stock Photo

© de luan

photography

18th Century Photography

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Early photography changed our view of the world. It provided more access to more images from more places and times in the world than ever before. Photography has given ordinary people the ability to open a window to look at more recent eras of history. This allows us to better empathize with those who came before us, but it also created the principles of today’s media landscape. The history of photography is closely linked to that of painting. The idea was conceived by painters as early as the 15th century, to improve practice for the painting profession. In the 18th century, pioneers in photography were also educated as painters whereafter they shifted their focus to photography under the name 'painter photographer' (peintre photographe). Thanks to their artist's eye, they formed the basis for photographing landscapes, portraits and still lifes. Vintage photography preserves long forgotten moments and it recorded voices, feelings, of people for eternity.

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© dpa picture alliance archive

contemporary art

Jean-Michel Basquiat

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Basquiat played an important and symbolic role in the New York art scene during the 1980s, and he quickly became one of the most popular artists of our times. Nowadays, his artistic language continues to fascinate the public all over the world. Like Keith Haring, his work is attributed to pop art, neo expressionism and graffiti art. Between 1981 and 1987 he made very 'explosive' works on canvas. His works are usually of large format made with acrylic with line drawings and texts with oil-paintstick on top. Much of his work was an indictment of racism. He also had a lot to do with this and his work was often referred to as 'primal'. Basquiat used social commentary in his paintings as a tool for introspection and to identify with his experiences in the black community of his time, as well as attacks on power structures and racist systems. During these years, Basquiat’s tormented soul unfolded into a successful career. He also worked for a number of years with Andy Warhol, whom he saw as a great example at that time. Their collaboration was equal.

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© sander troelstra

art brut & outsider art

New Dutch Masters

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New Dutch Masters is a rich combination of contemporary art and beautiful photography by photographer Sander Troelstra; he has won the Silver Camera award several times and in 2015 he was the winner of the prestigious National Portrait Award. Inspired by the unusual, Troelstra applied himself to portraying people with a frayed edge: eccentrics who, for whatever reason, fall just outside society. He portrays the artists purely and authentically.

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© pieter henket

photography

Congo Tails

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In the middle of the Congo rainforest, the people of Mbomo lead isolated lives in harmony with nature. Their oral history, filled with folkloric tales and myths, has never been written down or shared outside of their community. New York-based photographer Pieter Henket, travelled to the Congo with his team in order to capture these stories for the very first time. Henket documented the locals while they prepared for and acted out their own myths. Congo Tales combines epic scenes in full colour, set within the context of the tropical rainforest, with intimate portraits of the mythical characters in black and white.

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© amer ghazzal

contemporary art

Gilbert & George

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The artist duo Gilbert & George, consisting of the Italian Gilbert Prousch and the English George Passmore, has been active since 1969. They have become known for their performance art and brightly colored graphic-style photo-based artworks. They themselves act as sculptures for all their work, including their photos, drawings films and performances. Their work reflects moral factors, such as life, death and evil. Their motto is 'Art for All', because art should be something for everyone and not just for a select elite group of people. With their work Gilbert & George had a lot of influence on the Young British Artists, such as Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and Marc Quinn.

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© mihail ivanov

contemporary art

Andy Warhol’s legacy

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Andy Warhol is one of the main figures of American pop art in the 50s and 60s of the 20th century. He is also known as the father of an important New York art movement in the 1980s, in this period he experienced a revival of fame. Partly because of his friendships with several upcoming younger artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat. The 1980s were a time when Warhol was criticized for becoming just a 'business artist', this criticism can also be seen as 'the most brilliant mirror of our time'. Warhol's works are known for exploring the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished in the 1960s. His works are very diverse in media, including painting, screen printing, photography, film and sculpture. Despite the great diversity, Warhol's portraits form one of the most central categories within his oeuvre. He has portrayed numerous celebrities and well-known figures in high society including Aretha Franklin, John Lennon, Dolly Parton, Man Ray and many others. With this Warhol has shown the power of the media as the photographic image serves as an aesthetic system that is implemented in society. Over time, some works have become so much more than the symbol of an artistic movement. It may be said: Warhol created masterpieces that are not bound by time or place.

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© hoogsteder museum foundation

dutch & flemish masters

Rembrandt’s Academy

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Rembrandt’s Academy shows the greatness of Rembrandt’s artistic power and the influence of his art throughout the Netherlands. In his twenties Rembrandt took on his first pupils in Amsterdam. When Rembrandt achieved fame, he founded his Academy. During this exhibition, visitors are able to see work of Rembrandt’s students. All paintings are from private collections in Europe. Although some have been loaned to important museum exhibitions, these Rembrandt Academy paintings are usually hidden to the public.

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© jeffrey isaac greenberg

modern art

henri matisse

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Matisse, master of colors and he is famed as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. As the leader of the Fauves he was a relentless innovator of the art scene. His capture of symmetry in asymmetry along with his use of bold expressive colors and unique painting style brought him the admiration of Picasso and other artists. His pictures are so revolutionary because of its radical simplicity. Painting, Matisse seems to say, is not a representation of observed reality but the rhythmic arrangement of line and color on a flat plane. In his work, Matisse explored how far he could reduce images from nature to surface ornaments without destroying them. The placement of objects, figures, the proportions, empty spaces, all played a part in this.

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© perry van munster

contemporary art

Arte Povera – Material Explorations

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The history of Arte Povera movement (literally 'poor art') took place between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s in major cities throughout Italy. It emerged as a radical reaction to modern art to become one of the seminal art movements of the 20th century. Artists began attacking the values of established institutions of government, industry, and culture. Key figures are amongst others: Pistoletto, Schifano, Manzoni. Paolini, Kounellis, Calzolari, Merz and Anselmo.

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© hoogsteder museum foundation

dutch & flemish masters

HUNTING, GAME & PAINTING

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Hunting, Game & Painting in the Dutch Golden Age of Painting tells the story of how rich and poor hunted in the 17th-century Netherlands. Hardly anything was known in the museum world about hunting practices in the 17th century. New light is shed on Old Master paintings portraying this subject: still lifes and landscapes, as well as portraits, genre and mythological paintings. Enjoy the beauty of colourful still lifes in which prize game is displayed surrounded by luscious ripe fruit. Shiny pelts and fabulous feathers are depicted in meticulously lifelike fashion by masters such as Jan Fijt, Melchior d’Hondecoeter, Abraham Hondius and Jan Weenix. All museum quality paintings are lent from private European collections and are never seen in public.

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© agefotostock

modern art

Picasso ceramics and sculptures

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One of the most important figures of modern art, Picasso started making ceramics in the late 1940s. During his summers on the Cote d'Azur, he was inspired by the Mediterranean colors and light. Picasso met a French potter couple Suzanne and Georges Ramié and they gave him access to their studio. From then on they had a fruitful partnership for 25 years, with Picasso making his ceramics and sculptures and the Ramié family producing and selling them. Picasso produced over 3,500 ceramic designs. Although he started out making decorated utensils, such as plates and bowls, he later produced more complex shapes such as pitchers and vases - their handles were occasionally shaped to form facial features, or anatomical parts where they depicted animals. Picasso continued to make clay pieces for the last years of his life. Initially, he discovered that working with clay was a relaxing summer retreat from the more strenuous demands of painting.

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© hemis

contemporary art

Pop Art: artists & artworks

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In the 50s and 60s, pop art arose from a hunger for images built up over time. But also the idea that a work of art is not just a flat surface full of color, but an image that wants to be recognized. The development starts with artists like Andy Warhol and ends with Jeff Koons. Other key figures include Johns, Rauschenberg, Wesselman, Lichtenstein, Gilbert & George, Arman, Chamberlin, Pistoletto, Anselmo and many others. They worked with contemporary expressions of comic strips, cinema, commercial design, nudes, cheap sets and other devices. All symbols of modern consumer culture. This new art form reached its full development and height in America. It can be seen as an expression of the cheerful and free spirit of the 1960s, which began with the election of John F. Kennedy and ended with the Vietnam War.

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© light art collection

contemporary art

Light Art Collection

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Light Art Collection originated from the annual Amsterdam Light Festival, wants to connect, move, and enlighten people all over the world through the universal language of meaningful light art experiences. The organization delivers cultural value in the forefront of light art experiences through their exceptional light art collection, tailored consulting, meaningful curation, and high-standard production. The collection consists of a great variety of light art installations. Over the past ten years, international artists from different disciplines and backgrounds created these artworks. Many of the light artworks become part of an internationally travelling collection. Artists include: VENIVIDIMULTIPLEX, Yasuhiro Chida, Felipe Prado, Gali May Lucas, OGE Group, Streetart Frankey, Viktor Vicsek, Aleksandra Stratimirovic and many more. As of today, the works have travelled from London to Baltimore and from Athens to Riyadh.

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© hoogsteder museum foundation

dutch & flemish masters

MUSIC & DANCE

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Music & Dance celebrates the forgotten arts of music and dance in the Golden Age through paintings from that same era. As vibrant and alive as when they were created some four centuries ago, the paintings exhibited here are a window into time and simply radiate passion, energy and joie-de-vivre. Music and Dance in the Dutch Golden Age of Painting is the first ever exhibition dedicated to this theme. On show are paintings from the Northern and Southern Netherlands, painted between 1600 and 1700. Visitors are able to see Old-Master paintings from  European private collections – never seen before – in the entirely new context of music and dance.

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© stock italia

contemporary art

Keith Haring ‘art for all’

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Keith Haring’s rise to fame in the eighties is attributed to pop art, neo expressionism and graffiti-like drawings in New York City’s subways. This decade was ripe for an explosion of creativity brought about by a group of young, outsider artists who used the streets as their canvas. With his unmistakable style, Haring, protégé of Andy Warhol, unleashes a revolution in the art of the eighties. He is inspired by graffiti, comics, music, dance, 'high' art and popular culture, and develops a recognizable visual language. Keith Haring is a leader in the New York downtown community in the eighties, which derives its creativity from urban street culture. He sees it as his mission to expose social wrongs through art. His cartoon-like paintings and drawings were about AIDS, drugs and apartheid.

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© nikolay vinokurov

contemporary art

Tom Wesselmann

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The artist Tom Wesselmann worked in painting, collage and sculpture and developed into one of the best-known pop art artists in the 1960s. Wesselmann's works often stylized the feminine form, encapsulating elements of American life and consumer culture. Wesselmann initially started as an illustrator of comics and men's magazines. In his early years he made small collages of photos from magazines and later devoted himself to the female nude which he portrayed in many forms. He combined figurative painting with large, enlarged representations of everyday objects, giving his work a stylized character. He was acclaimed in the art world for his series Great American Nude, in which he depicts numerous patriotic scenes.

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© dolores kohl education foundation

family & art experiences

Van Gogh for All

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Vincent van Gogh remains one of the best-loved artists in the world today, with a passionate appeal that touched young and old alike. Van Gogh for All is a 1.500 – 3.000 square foot traveling exhibit with a focus on the artist’s work from his time in Arles, Saint Rémy, and Auvers sur Oise. Designed for children, families and young adults, the experientially rich exhibit uses modern technology and participatory learning to engage new audiences in Van Gogh’s genius, his personal struggles, and his creative process. Van Gogh for All is a traveling exhibit that immerses you in the works of the world’s most famous painter. It’s designed to engage 21st-century audiences in the 19th-century art of Vincent van Gogh.

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© mauritshuis

family & art experiences

Hello Vermeer!

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Getting to know the painter Johannes Vermeer in a playful way: that is the idea of ​​the family exhibition Hello Vermeer! created by the Mauritshuis. Families with children between 3 and 11 years old step into another world: Delft in the 17th century. You can learn more about Johannes Vermeer in a playful way in various 17th-century houses. The houses have been recreated after examples from Vermeer's paintings or in some cases houses that can still be seen in Delft. Various houses have had a meaning in Vermeer's life and various activities are offered in the houses based on a theme. Dressing up, doing puzzles, watching movies, there is plenty to do, interesting for young and old.

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© mauritshuis

family & art experiences

Hello Rembrandt!

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The Mauritshuis has created the hands-on exhibition for families with children aged 3 to 11: Hello Rembrandt! Young and old learn more about the famous painter in an interactive exhibition. Of course, everyone can also get to work as a Rembrandt pupil with paint and brushes. Learn about Rembrandt. Who was Rembrandt and why is he still such a renowned artist? Did Rembrandt have siblings, what was paint made off in the seventeenth century? In Hello Rembrandt visitors will be able to learn all about Rembrandt together.

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© seyhan lee

kickstart exhibitions

The Center

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The Center (short for The Center for Spiritual Wisdom) is a ticketed immersive experience center which offers cultural programing. Kicking off in Amsterdam in 2023, Seyhan Lee created The Center exploring the vital possibilities that technology offers to human spirituality. Its immersive space of A.I. and A.R. artful textures and geometries is designed to generate balance and a state of peace. Community occurs naturally, conversation is paramount, and all are welcome. Meet here. Speak here. Teach here. Practice here. The Center will open daily for the immersive experience and exploration supported by evening lectures, music, and performances. Together with Kickstarter campaigns we try to make ideas into reality. It’s where Beyond Exhibitions & Seyhan Lee share new visions for creative work with the communities that will come together to fund them.

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