Eva Besnyö Pictures the Dutch

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Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-10-05 and may be subject to change. bmgn - Low Countries Historical Review | Volume 133-1 (2018) | pp. 53-79

Modernism and Mass Culture at Sea in the Interwar Period

remco ensel 53

In 1938, the Hungarian-Dutch photographer Eva Besnyö contributed with a stylish photo wall to the interior decoration of the passenger ship Nieuw Amsterdam. Besnyö’s photography was part of a unique collaboration between the shipping company and more than sixty artists. In mass media and manifestations the ocean liner was presented as one huge floating signifier of national grandeur and tradition. The photo wall fitted perfectly in this narrative but this was precisely why Besnyö had her doubts. In this article I seek to find out how the photographer managed to produce the wall working within the limits of her penchant for modernism and the demands of the assignment. I argue that the poetic quality of the composition lies in the way in which the photographer as bricoleur from the debris of available images created a visualised myth of the nation, as expounded by Claude Lévi- Strauss. Both the photo wall and the ship’s interior as Gesamtkunstwerk can be understood as utopian attempts to reconcile modernism and mass culture.

In 1938 verzorgde de Hongaars-Nederlandse fotograaf Eva Besnyö een fotowand voor het interieur van het nieuwe passagiersschip van de Holland-Amerika Lijn. De wand maakte deel uit van een unieke samenwerking tussen de reder en meer dan zestig kunstenaars. In de media en bij manifestaties fungeerde het passagiersschip als groots drijvend symbool van de natie. De wand werd bejubeld, maar Besnyö behield haar twijfels. In dit artikel onderzoek ik de visuele poëzie van de wand en betoog dat haar werkwijze, schipperend tussen fotografisch modernisme en de eisen van de opdrachtgever, overeenkomsten vertoont met die van de bricoleur zoals uiteengezet door Claude Lévi-Strauss. Dit resulteerde in een associatieve visuele mythe die aansloot bij het scheepsinterieur als Gesamtkunstwerk waarin een utopische boodschap lag besloten over de rol van de kunstenaar in de moderne tijd.

Published by Royal Netherlands Historical Society | knhg Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License doi: 10.18352/bmgn-lchr.10318 | www.bmgn-lchr.nl | e-issn 2211-2898 | print issn 0165-0505 article – artikel

‘In civilizations without boats, dreams dry up.’ Michel Foucault

On 10 May 1938, at five minutes past midnight, the s.s. Nieuw Amsterdam left the port of Rotterdam on its maiden voyage to New York.1 Among the 600 passengers was the young photographer Eva Besnyö (1910-2003), who held a ticket for passage on assignment for the Holland-America Line. The photographs by Besnyö follow this voyage of the passenger ship, as well as the preparations for the trip, from painting the hull to the trial run. Besnyö faithfully conveyed the elegant interiors, such as the third-class bar – ‘never excessive [...] pure and civilised’, according to a reviewer.2 In addition to depicting the shipbuilding process, Besnyö contributed ten photographs to the elaborate interior decoration, displayed on a nine-meter wall in the third- class L-shaped smoking salon. Passengers reclining in the low green armchairs could admire Besnyö’s photo wall featuring landscapes and portraits reflecting the range of motifs in representations of the Netherlands during the Interbellum. The series invited passengers – compatriots and foreigners alike – to imagine and remember the nation while sailing the Atlantic. The photo collage served as mnemonic and as a utopian promise. The photo wall by Eva Besnyö serves in this article as a foundation for exploring photographic representations of the country and people of the Netherlands in the 1930s. The visual poetics are perhaps comparable to ‘Remembrance of Holland’ (1936), Hendrik Marsman’s poem (‘Thinking of Holland/I see wide rivers/slowly traversing through/unending lowland’), which was written during the same pre-war years. The photo wall was one of three that Besnyö, rightly considered a pioneer of modernist New Photography, assembled in the late 1930s. All three walls (none remain to this day) present the Netherlands through the eyes of this Budapest-born photographer. Individual photos from these projects resurfaced, occasionally with local stories and poems, in numerous photo books, magazines and journals. Addressing the topic of visual nationalism, in this article I aim to investigate the mythopoetic quality of the wall.3 In the interwar years a sense of national belonging was promulgated as part of an expanding and diversifying visual economy. Commercial shipping

1 I am deeply grateful to Mrs Iara Brusse for taking (ed.), Mythologiques (Paris 1957) 180-211 and on the time to talk about Eva Besnyö’s oeuvre in the ‘le caractère mythopoétique’: Claude Lévi-Strauss, spring of 2014 and again in the fall of 2017. La pensée sauvage, (Paris 1962) 26; on visual 2 A.M. Hammacher, ‘Het schip en zijn versierde nationalism: Michael R. Orwicz, ‘Nationalism and ruimten’, Elzevier’s Maandtijdschrift xcv, 5 (1938) Representation, in Theory’, in: June Hargrove and 323-331, 327. Neill McWilliam (eds.) Nationalism and French 3 On myth, photography and nationalism: Roland Visual Culture, 1870-1914 (New Haven, London Barthes, ‘Le mythe, aujourd’hui’, in: Roland Barthes 2005) 17-35. ensel eva besnyö pictures the dutch 55

, 20 November November , 20 Drawing Drawing 5 John’s mother, the mother, John’s The concept ofThe concept 10 6 In Holland she joined a progressive art 5 (1984) Continuité Mouvement, Architecture, 46-49. , 3-47. Lévi-Strauss, sauvage pensée La Jameson,Fredric ‘Reification and Utopia in Mass of Jameson in: Fredric (ed.),Culture’, Signatures 9-34, and on 25-26 1992) (New York visible the Narrative structuralism, Unconscious. The Political Act (Ithaca Symbolic 1982). a Socially as ps ‘Schaven aan alles’, Het Parool 18-21. 1999, Besnyö Eva Willem Diepraam, van beeld Een numbered). not (pages (Amsterdam, 1993) 9 This symbolic use ofThis symbolic use to manifest ships 4 7 8 9 10 The question I ask is how the New Amsterdam, including including Amsterdam, New The question I ask is how the 8 The boundaries between the two categories are porous. two categories are porous. The boundaries between the 7 Based on the structuralist guidelines of Claude Lévi-Strauss, I will Based guidelines of on the structuralist Claude Lévi-Strauss, An ocean liner may seem an unusual vehicle for expressing vehicle for expressing may seem an unusual An ocean liner Thus, as Fredric Jameson argues in his political reading of both structuralism, Thus, of in that all forms modern purposes, art and popular culture serve ideological illusions ‘optical or models’ ‘utopian artistic creativity function as vectors of of harmony’. social navigate the particulars ofnavigate arts and popular culture to underpin the visual these arguments. heterotopia denotes the spatial and temporal otherness of the ship, as well as the spatial and temporal otherness ofheterotopia denotes the ship, class and identity, National offers for utopian projections. the opportunities it in the lay-outgender appear to converge interior design of and these vessels. was among the settings used to project the national imagination in Europe. Europe. in imagination the national to project used the settings among was of attributes to being In addition liners were transatlantic pride, national art. promoting national vehicles for Educated in Budapest and Berlin, Eva Besnyö fled to the Netherlands in the Eva Educated in Budapest and Berlin, stay ahead of the Nazis’. ‘to early 1930s, Besnyö’s images, offered a suitable space of an (optical) illusion. such images, Besnyö’s nationalism. During the heyday of passenger service on the Atlantic, however, however, the heyday of During Atlantic, passenger service on the nationalism. sense of world’. security in an uncertain ‘a these vessels offered art resonated in popular culture, as evidenced by the public spectacles by the public spectacles as evidenced in popular culture, art resonated ofAmsterdam. the launch surrounding the New on notes by Michel Foucault, art historian Anne Wealleans contends that in Wealleans Anne art historian Foucault, on notes by Michel and privileged ‘perfect by the forces of the modernity’, ‘challenged a world symbolises heterotopia of this the high seas, space of the ship interior, as they would like to see themselves’. society and nations scene that revolved around the family of John Fernhout (the photographer and scene that revolved around the family of John Fernhout marriage’). ‘sailor’s cameraman with whom she later had a Mark A. ‘Picturing Russell, the Imperator: Shipping as ArtPassenger and National Symbol in History 44 European the German Empire’, Central (2011) 227-256. multi-purposeThe of heyday passenger shipping differs from the postwar emergence cruise ships. holiday of for the See latter: Peter Identity, Cruise: Quartermaine Peter, and Bruce 2006). (New York Culture and Design A History Liners. of Designing Anne Wealleans, (London 2006) 1-2; Michel Afloat Design Interior Foucault, ‘Of spaces, other Heterotopias’, The photographer asThe artist an photographer 4 5 6 article – artikel

 The painting of the hull of the ss Nieuw Amsterdam, 1938. Maria Austria Instituut (Amsterdam), Collection Eva Besnyö, r114. ensel eva besnyö pictures the dutch 57

11 The exact 15 “Een cineac van After the war, she After the war, 12 Nieuw Amsterdam’, Rkd-168-bulletin : 0104, Spanjaard, Frits (draft 30 Archive letter ‘Schaven aan alles.’ rkd and photo 22 Besnyö, April,Spanjaard to 1974, Bragt, Van album); Ramses ‘ beeldende kunsten.” Spanjaard, Frits Besnyö Eva en het s.s. 10-13. (2012) monograph the wall is only partiallyvisible: Eva 1910-2003, Budapest-Berlin- Photographer, Besnyö: Ensel, (Berlin 2011), Remco also See Amsterdam nationalisme en Fotografie in beeld. Nederlander De 1920 1940 en (Amsterdam 2014). tussen

15 14 With this in mind, the art project is likely to this in mind, With 14 also published a photo collage about the construction a photo collage also published Monographs on photography generally focus on Monographs on photography 13 The illustrious pre-war career ofThe illustrious pre-war Besnyö photography has led her The photo wall was commissioned by Frits Spanjaard, who was who was commissioned by Frits Spanjaard, was The photo wall (We. Our work – our life), she remained involved in social photography involved in she remained Our work – our life), (We. Wij. Ons werk, ons leven 4, 11 Wij. leven ons Ons werk, started a family while continuing to take photographs ofstarted a family while artist and architecture Besnyö as a street photographer of emerged the In the late 1960s, portraits. time using a Leica camera. this second feminist movement, the context of almost exclusively in to be viewed and valued museums and exhibition catalogues. painter Charley Toorop, had close ties with several artists, architects and writers, and writers, architects artists, with several close ties had Toorop, Charley painter her with Working Rietveld. and Gerrit Piet Mondrian Ivens, as Joris such and dedicated as a pioneering established a reputation Besnyö soon Rolleiflex, ons werk, Ons journal Wij. illustrated socialist Contributing to the photographer. leven Wij from Berlin. emerging of fame’. name and ‘artists and furnishing of by Amsterdam the Nieuw responsible for the third-class ship. public areas in the passenger have been a welcome source of if even have income, Besnyö to remained reluctant commoditise aspects of her art. During the war, Besnyö initially remained active as a photographer, then went Besnyö initially remained active as a photographer, During the war, reappeared with false papers. and eventually into hiding, individual prints, considered out of their proper context. In the 1930s, In the 1930s, considered out of their proper context. individual prints, possibly with captions, pictures were usually reproduced, Besnyö’s however, Some in series or as part of a collage on a photo wall. in popular periodicals, the authentic original prints) outside images did not exist (as valuable and To understand their purpose they figured. collage or montage in which material and ideological the pictures need to be restored to their connotation, their artistic quality and market value. require considering which contexts, regular employment and therefore Photographers did not ordinarily have ‘had to work very hard to earn a living, Besnyö subsisted from assignments. but earning producing all sorts of images for newspapers and press agencies, work’. very little through such Fotografie in (eds.),Flip Bool Broos and Kees Fotografie 1920-1940 and Tineke Nederland: (Den Haag 1979) (Amsterdam 2007). Marion Besnyö Eva de Ruiter, Beckers and Elisabeth Moortgat label the photo and appear support to wall as controversial renunciation.Besnyö’s In the picture in their (15 April 1938) 12-14. (15 April 1938) had sister Magda departedEva’s on the last the Holland-America of voyage Line (Diepraam, ). During the war the ship Besnyö Eva van beeld Een as a militarywas used freighter. ‘Nederlands vlaggeschip de “Nieuw Amsterdam” ’,

12 13 11 article – artikel

 Photo wall by Eva Besnyö on the ss Nieuw Amsterdam, 1938. Maria Austria Instituut (Amsterdam), Collection Eva Besnyö, a740. ensel eva besnyö pictures the dutch 59

16 18 , 1927-1934 Jennings, . Eds. Michael W. Eva Besnyö. andTineke Carry Besnyö. de Ruiter de Swaan, Eva (Amsterdam 1982). werk eeuw ’n Halve the discredited Besnyö In retrospect, however, postcards’: Beckers and kitschy seriesof wall as ‘a kitsch of The, 159. Moortgat, concept Besnyö Eva became when widespread it was 1920s, in the late Benjamin as an object that Walter described by gratificationoffers physical immediate without an intervening intellectual effort: ‘Dream Kitsch. on Surrealism’ andGloss ‘Some on Remarks Folk Art’, Writings. Benjamin, Selected in: Walter ii Volume Eiland andHoward Gary 1999) Smith (Cambridge 3-5 and 278-280.

17 18 Strictly speaking, Besnyö was referring here Besnyö was Strictly speaking, 17 Queen of the voyage to to the of voyage More than just a job to be done, Besnyö as a on the assignment took just a job to be done, More than The template ofThe template simulate a visual encounter intended to was photo wall the with the Netherlands. of had become one Montages formats for public the new move. new career As a with typography. possibly in combination photography exhibitions, of Besnyö fully aware was the dangers and took modernist photographer, with a wall photo of kitsch, a landscape can easily become ‘A no chances: restricted to I kept it very abstract, why That’s horror. pictures would be a would with pictures’ ‘wall A done.’ as I have and motifs, the most basic lines Photography’. ‘Old been have wording ofwording been to have but is certain unknown remains assignment the since I know of case of only one previous courageous, sea. a photo collage at Besnyö later mentioned that getting the arrangement right was quite a Besnyö that getting the arrangement right was later mentioned The in greater detail. clear from observing the wall as becomes challenge, Amsterdam quay with an iron is a successive array featuring an photo wall a woman and a sand dune, carriers, the port ofcheese bridge, Rotterdam, a man and child a row of windmills, blooming tulips, in folkloric garb, child to pictorialism, the photographic paradigm that preceded modernism. In paradigm that preceded modernism. the photographic to pictorialism, a whole series of she discredited photographic practices however, effect, going aimed to establish their authority: new photographers against which from the photos and drawing retouching for emotionally appealing images, to Besnyörepertoire of choose iconic images circulating in the mass media. showcase graphic aspects of the photographic surface to position herself as an from the so-calledartist and move away popular visual media. kitschy (1935) is more likely to have first introduced first introduced have is more to likely (1935) .: een cultuurhistorische studie van 100 jaar van studie cultuurhistorische .: een Elizabeth. In 1974, Spanjaard thought that Besnyö’s Spanjaard thought that Besnyö’s In 1974, wall was thephoto first its kind, of although montage Richards’ photo Ceri Australia the in the British bar of tourist class Orion onphotography board. the See appendix of en Europa tussen Abraham Cornelis, Dromen de v.s transatlantische de van boord aan luxe-vervoer (1840-1940) (PhD thesis, passagiersschepen Weallans, also . See 1993) Leiden Rijksuniversiteit In 1946, Henry, 113. Liners H.Designing Trivick for the ss made composition a photo The photo wall as a work of art of wall as a work The photo 16 article – artikel

 Photo wall by Eva Besnyö on the oil tanker Pendrecht 2, 1939. Maria Austria Instituut (Amsterdam), Collection Eva Besnyö, a606. ensel eva besnyö pictures the dutch 61

19 , Opbouw 8 en De 21 motortankschip “Pendrecht” ’, 126. 119-126, (1939) https://www.youtube.com/ Newsreels: watch?v=vDQGQhammuY and https://www. (photo youtube.com/watch?v=R9w4vhhg_nY wall at 60 s.). 21 20 d82: flyer New flyer d82: There are several sources for the wall, as it was positioned on the as it was There are several sources for the wall, The various projections of the photo wall do not fully match. The first of projections The various do not fully match. the photo wall The pictures on two other photo walls that Besnyö composed in other photo walls The pictures on two Nieuw Amsterdam. The wall is probably lost, the individual prints have been the individual prints have is probably lost, The wall Amsterdam. Nieuw Austria at the Maria Archive Besnyö kept in the Eva One leporello, preserved. cardboard. comprises eleven prints pasted on yellow Amsterdam, Institute in consisting of numbered and second scale model, two rows ofA five pictures, of appears in the collection Amsterdam visibly pasted on cardboard, the of art on the ship may be identified based on a sketch the Besnyö’s Museum. there is In addition, catalogue. interior found in the shipping company’s well as footage of as picture of salon, in the smoking the the wall Besnyö’s briefly features. the wall in which launch, leporello contains two copies of by side at the centre of the flower bulbs side and the flower bulbs were the windmills In the catalogue drawing, the wall. Besnyö took many of the photographs (of the dunes, the cheese carriers, the Besnyö carriers, took many of the cheese the photographs (of the dunes, which row of North Holland, grazing) near Bergen, windmills and the cows were who the home of was Amsterdam and her in-laws, is relatively close to by fellow members ofregularly visited there cultural elite. the Dutch The oil Amsterdam. the scenic subjects on the Nieuw these years match on a semi-circular between the wall 2 (1939) contained, tanker Pendrecht scenes combined with portraits of landscape twelve Dutch rural portholes, a close- with farming machinery of a field dwellers: a row of flowers, trees, diagonally bisected by a ditch, a meadow a high horizon, up of cornstalks, portraits, two Marken a fishing port, a row ofAmsterdam gables, greenhouses, The modern avro radio broadcasting studio and a group portrait of anglers. featured a row of Ben Merkelbach, designed by architect premises (1936), three similar pictures. on a bicycle, cows grazing and a fisherman in traditional attire with sails in sails in attire with traditional in and a fisherman grazing cows on a bicycle, and considered carefully was wall on the composition The the background. balance between a delicate Besnyö struck project, In her photo well-balanced. that observe the restrictions She had to and assignment. artistic ambition to present an old theme but also aimed freelance photographer apply to a of months taking photographs ‘I spent six perspective. from an innovative In the first a focused study.’ I had never done such all kinds of landscapes. She half visual material for the photo wall. to gather of she travelled 1937, took one segment of a 9 ×12 with her Rolleiflex and another with the pictures and windmills). tulips, camera (bridge, Technika Linhof Large Format : Archive Van Ravesteyn, rave Ravesteyn, Van : Archive nai (Haarlem 1938). Figures Facts and Amsterdam, journal the special avant-garde of issues Two the studio discuss (including Opbouw 8 en De pictures and the Besnyö) oil tanker: by no. J.B. and van Ir. Loghem, ‘Het (4 July 1936) 13-14 19 20 article – artikel

 Scale model of the photo wall on the ss Nieuw Amsterdam. Collection Amsterdam Museum. eva besnyö pictures the dutch Nieuw Amsterdam.  Scale model wall on the the of photo ss Collection Amsterdam Museum. article – artikel

reversed and situated at the far left of the wall.22 A more precise comparison indicates that the two-part model in the Amsterdam Museum is the later version, but minor differences remain with respect to the final frames on the ship’s wall. The main difference concerns the reproduction of the cheese carriers. Only after learning about the two-part scale model (images pp. 62 and 63) did I become aware of the dissimilarities between the reproductions of the cheese carriers on the leporello and the final one on the wall (as in the image on p. 58). The two-part scale model and the final version both present the carriers from head to toe. Most surprising, the cheese carriers are standing on a red surface, a feature I have never seen mentioned in references to the wall. Nor did I think of this option, even though adding colour to part of a photo montage was becoming common in modern graphic design; this was especially the case for red, as a signal hue. Paul Schuitema had coloured several pictures for his booklet, Waar Nederland trotsch op is. Hoe we tegen het water vochten en wat we er mee deden [What the Netherlands is proud of. How we fought the water and what we did with it] (Leiden, 1940). This jubilant nationalistic picture book includes several pictures by Besnyö, two of which are part of the wall: the image that serves as the background for the fisherman and the port. The final wall did indeed contain a large darkened surface, but with only monochrome source material available, we cannot be certain about the original colour.

The photographer as bricoleur

Using the collection of photographs she had taken, Besnyö compiled the photo wall with ‘whatever is at hand’.23 Most of her photographs were of country landscapes: dunes and meadows, polder land. The cityscapes of Rotterdam (the harbour and the docks) and Amsterdam (the bridge on the Brouwersgracht) look familiar but differ from her more street-oriented social photography from Berlin. The radiant tulips invoke the waving cornstalks of Russian contemporary cinematography, and the two photos of villagers in traditional garb (the Volendam fisherman and the woman and child from the isle of Marken) were widespread. Finally, her mother-in-law Charley Toorop had previously depicted similar Alkmaar cheese carriers on canvas (and Besnyö had in turn captured her painting them).24 While I am reluctant to reach sweeping conclusions, indications suggest that Besnyö had teamed up with her future husband graphic designer

22 William Seabrook, Nieuw Amsterdam, 1626-1938 material which has already been worked on (d’une (Haarlem 1938). matière déjà travaillée) so as to make it suitable for 23 Lévi-Strauss, La pensée sauvage, 27 (‘avec les communication. “moyens du bord” ’). See Barthes,‘Le myth 24 On Toorop and Besnyö: Tineke de Ruiter, Besnyö aujourd’hui’, 183: Mythical speech is made of a in Bergen (Antwerp 2000). ensel eva besnyö pictures the dutch 65 Besnyö and 25 : 0104, Spanjaard, Archive draft 30: letter rkd Besnyö. Spanjaard to 26 The visual motifs were carefully considered. The visual motifs were carefully considered. 26 I assume that Eva Besnyö was in charge. She created the wall as a well- created the wall She Besnyö in charge. was I assume that Eva as hand revealing Besnyö’s Most individual photos contain a diagonal, Besnyö balance the anecdote of needed to a single picture with the The repetitive intended to be viewed as a whole. was The photo wall Brusse did in fact work together on various projects in these years. After the After the years. projects in these on various in fact work together Brusse did postage stamps of portraits issue of credited with the both were children’s war, In anticipation covers. book as well as various taken by Besnyö during the war, that project as a collaborative interior architecture of the topic of the ship’s within the close it might be called a Gesamtkunstwerk I shall discuss below, modernist the fabulous colourful Perhaps two artists. relationship between on the wall. signature the graphic designer’s was patch attentive not whole with cross-references, a poetic constructed composition, A but also to the visual effects ofonly to the subject matter light and lines. series of offers 3,628,800 possible permutations, only ten selected images for example by by adding new images, are increased exponentially which started might have aesthetic reasons the photographer For photo montage. include images because ofwith certain pictures but would ultimately the overall structure of the wall. The original woman-and-child and cheese Photographer’. ‘New a modernist direction the By changing wall. carrier pictures were mirrored on the photo of Besnyö presented spectators with a balanced series of the diagonal, images. The sequence left to bottom right. On six pictures the diagonal is from top of the portraits – woman, left and right is highlighted by having alternating was This conscious intervention cheese carrier – all face right. fisherman and meadow The dune and made possible through the use of three montages. sequence of point in the top right offset the landscapes with their vanishing diagonals. with pictures! In her art not a wall In any case, structural totality of the wall. been attempting to reconcile modernist photography project she may have of its utopian Part with the predicament of artistic mimesis and kitsch. formal to locate meaning in the endeavour dimensions may figure in Besnyö’s structure of ten interconnected photographs. coherence of of elements and visual motifs in the representation the to interpret the photos photo wall Netherlands induced those viewing Besnyö’s pleased with Besnyö’s Frits Spanjaard was In this respect, as a logical series. photo wall’. suggestive ‘very The gaze would shift from one cityscape to another; from cheese carriers to a The gaze would shift from one cityscape to another; from cheese to a father and child; via tulips and windmills, dune; from a mother and child, Landscapes and portraits alternated at the same from a meadow to a fisherman. Wim Brusse on this assignment. I learned about this idea from Iara Brusse, Iara Brusse, idea from this I learned about assignment. on this Brusse Wim practices. her parents’ about knowledge extensive who has Email Ms Iara Brusse, 12 September, 2017. Email Iara Ms September, Brusse, 12 25 article – artikel

 Illustration of the third class smoking salon from the shipping company’s catalogue. ensel eva besnyö pictures the dutch 67 Thanks to the size 28 34-36. Lévi-Strauss, sauvage, pensée La 28 The photograph series reflects a distinctive The photograph 27 The artistic miniature serves to get closer to ‘the essential nature ‘the The artistic miniature serves to get closer to The series of images contains an underlying structure: it can be The dimensions of the naturalising effects of reinforce the wall the series. Down with ‘conventional trickery’, as Gerrit Rietveld noted in the first as trickery’, ‘conventional Down with and the two-dimensional passengers could assess the discrete elements plane, reduction Scale of appreciate its binary logic. at a glance and wall the photo outlook on a a sensory and rational aside from aesthetic pleasure, therefore offers, The selection of scale reduction brings order. After all, meaningful infrastructure. works by the artist is already a simplified rendition of the complex and confusing The artist limits the possibilities by processing the material to outside world. Only through the imagination of the highlight one or more distinctive features. visual arts can we grasp the Netherlands as a whole. as pointed out by cultural anthropologist Henk Driessen, but, of things’ viewed as a two-part series, of the elements are simultaneously mutual which viewed as a two-part series, conveys complementary The photo wall counterparts and complements. The landscape and the presenting arbitrary combinations as natural. series, without any a natural unit, photographic models positioned there form The imagery refers to a selection of nature, uninhabited cultivated friction. traces of and familiar parenthood, tradition, home life, scenes from Dutch I perceive an attempt to reconcile current conceptions of tradition modernity. and modernity. but the opposite hold is obvious, The efficacy of photo enlargements in the ship’s of Part the strength of artistic reduction) is at least as important. Besnyö’s (i.e. lies in what Lévi-Strauss considers to be one ofphoto wall the most effective scale reduction. i.e., ofrhetorical mechanisms the arts, convergence between people and landscapes to convey a common message people and landscapes to convey a common convergence between The models had been placed about the space of its inhabitants. the nation and portraits but had all been These photos were not studio in the landscape. deprives the woman and the montage Interestingly, taken in outdoor settings. while the montage of the fisherman explicitly ofchild an outdoor backdrop, reinforcing the female/male and private/public air, situates him in the open The rural ambience and so-called folklore were recurring topoi opposition. The photos also feature the of nationalism during the Interbellum. popular of the port Rotterdam. a bridge over the water, infrastructure: mills, nation’s Dutch review of Besnyö’s work. review ofDutch Besnyö’s time that a series ofthat a series time visible: pairs became complementary to from tradition city to country, from to father, from mother meadow, dune to from modernity, ofthe series consisted elements To spectators, to fishing. from agriculture cycle and the agricultural the countryside, together naturally: that belonged women inMen on the land and dikes and bridges. fishermen, with the water series. this iconic complement a child, sometimes holding folkloric garb, ‘Rietveld Tijd De Besnyö’, November Eva , 27 over 1933.

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miniaturists need not operate according to a set procedure. There is always room for improvisation.29 The photographer switches back and forth between image and structure, arranging her material to her satisfaction. In her effort to be ‘original’ and ‘innovative’, she is necessarily restrained by her limitations and the preferences of the client and prospective audience. The bricoleur, as made famous by Lévi-Strauss, acts as a craftsman who draws from whatever is conveniently at hand. By juxtaposing different and contrasting elements, she reconciles opposites. According to Lévi-Strauss, the artist moves between the two poles of craftsman and engineer. She works with bits and pieces and instrumentalises existing sources but seems more interested in delivering a new point of view.30 The artist is in any case much less the uniquely autonomous artist, avoiding imitation and kitsch (mother and child!), as cherished in reviews of modern arts. Besnyö’s photo wall aligned with the wealth of photography books in the late 1930s, where pictures of land and people in traditional attire featured opposite each other: e.g. the photography monograph series De schoonheid van ons land [The Beauty of Our Country] published by Contact (invoking Marsman’s ‘Remembrance of Holland’) and several books published by Kok, Callenbach and Zomer & Keuning. All propagate a nationalist style that eulogises the binary structure of people and landscape. The iconographies in the book resonate the nationalistic promise that traditional scenes of people and landscapes safeguard national heritage. Notwithstanding modernisation, an immutable core – the foundation of national identity – has been preserved. Borrowing from this image archive, Besnyö sought out her own visual impressions. The photo montage aptly illustrates the bricoleur approach by the artist. While composing the two photo walls between 1937 and 1939, Besnyö frequently applied this practice so prominent in New Photography and modernist Graphic Design. The term was introduced by Lázló Moholy-Nagy in his Malerei, Photographie, Film (1925),31 and Hannah Höch was one of the pioneers in modernism’s primary visual arts technique in post-war Germany. Inspired by Dada and Surrealism, Höch created critical and disturbing images, reflecting her ‘social anxieties and concerns’, for which she became increasingly renowned during the 1920s. The monteur could process self- made photos or reuse existing reproductions. The montage could be used to reverse the status quo– for example by presenting well-known images in a new context. Assembling them as a world-upside-down could disclose a utopian

29 Henk Driessen, ‘Een passie voor de miniatuur’, 30 Lévi-Strauss (La pensée sauvage, 26) speaks of ‘le in: Henk Driessen and Huub de Jonge (eds.), caractère mythopoétique du bricolage’. Miniature Etnografiche (Nijmegen 2000) 145-149; 31 Flip Bool, Paul Schuitema (1897-1973) ‘Een poging Ton Lemaire, Claude Lévi-Strauss. Tussen mythe en tot ordening van zijn werk voor de Tweede muziek (Amsterdam, 2008) 100-108. Wereldoorlog’. (ma thesis, History of Art, University of Amsterdam 1974:3). ensel eva besnyö pictures the dutch 69 58) Paul Paul 33 32 Maud Lavin, ‘Androgyny, Spectatorship,Maud Lavin, and the ‘Androgyny, Hannah of New Höch’, Photomontages Weimar 67-69. 62-86, 51 (1990) Critique German 33 While avant-garde photographers reused images from illustrated photographers reused images While avant-garde The montage visually disrupted the unity of visually disrupted The montage the work ofwell as as art, The photo wall may be construed as one huge montage but also may be construed as one huge montage but also The photo wall journals, the montage became part of of the visual tradition journals, culture mass modernity’. with consumerism and ‘connected and a design tool, the idea of the object as a representation of reality. It disturbed expectations It disturbed the idea of of as a representation the object reality. the montage offered Moreover, had an alienating effect. among spectators and regardless of, the photographer to present as an artist the opportunity for moment lay not in the The artistic not generated. the print he had or had artist César The Dutch but in the resulting montage. photographic process the composition unitaire applied equally throughout Domela used the term photo wall. vision. To Höch, this ideal was the vision of the ideal was this to Woman; the New Liberated Höch, To vision. was the montage early years, In the society. the classless Heartfield, John rowdy contempt of‘loud-mouthed, a for expressing par excellence technique aesthetics’. bourgeois art and traditional After analysing the photo wall in isolation, the next step is to reposition it in in isolation, After analysing the photo wall The photo (image p. the public facility of the third class smoking salon. Schuitema was one of using montages of was Schuitema the pioneers in this field, photos Besnyö trained as a advertising. and graphics for journals and corporate a Brusse was Wim in Hungary, commercial and advertising photographer stripped Although these developments may not have student of Schuitema. anti-Nazi montages the montage of its political significance (John Heartfield’s it did lose ‘ideological antinomies’), were intensely political and replete with its authentic subversive power. the woman The fisherman, comprises three distinctive photo montages. on a new carriers were cut out and superimposed cheese and the and child, out of carriers walked the cheese the market In the montage, background. in which The selection yielded three images, and into a geometric landscape. Besnyö’s interfering background. the model had become central without an a the original unsettling effect that such lacked montages on the photo walls Instead of and alienation, fragmentation composition could bring to mind. Besnyö the images in a familiar representation of combined the nation that instead ofdenotes a future invigorated by the past: deconstruction (of the – reconstruction. national – body), Kristin Makholm, ‘Strange Beauty: Hannah Höch 19-23; 24 and MoMA the Photomontage’, (1997) Life A Political Heartfield: Coles, John Anthony 2016). (Chicago The as a Gesamtkunstwerk ship 32 article – artikel

and the catalogue drawing convey how passengers might have observed the photo wall. The pictures were placed at eye level and could be viewed from a distance. Thanks to the low ceiling, the photo series filled almost the entire wall. On the one hand, the wall was only a small feature in a much larger public space. On the other hand, this space was designed to encourage passengers to take a seat and observe the photo wall. Passengers reclining in the armchairs had a good view of the images at the bottom left (bridge, mother, mills, and fisherman), while the dune horizon and meadow led them to gaze upwards. The photo wall corresponded with the large, smooth glass ornament, offering an impression of fishing boats, by Heinrich Campendonk in the nearby third-class lounge.34 Campendonk’s maritime imagery may be seen as an analogy of Besnyö’s artwork that visualises the home country. Both appeal to communal desire. The third-class passenger in transit moves between the two works of art. In his letter to Besnyö, Spanjaard recalls that the photo wall was exceedingly attractive to passengers aboard the vessel. Lecturing about space as the great fixation of the twentieth century, Michel Foucault described the ship as ‘the heterotopia par excellence’. A vessel is a ‘floating piece of space’, a point of departure, to be embarked on with permission, after which a rupture with everyday time occurs. Once aboard, the members of the temporary community remain in transit for a definite period. These are the ideal conditions for producing ‘a space of illusion [...] as perfect and meticulous, as well arranged as our world is messy, ill constructed, and jumbled’.35 Organising the space and the interior architecture may enhance this illusion. The New Amsterdam was a heterotopia affected by utopian imagery. Artistic interaction figured prominently in the imaginative attributes of the decoration. The concept of a Gesamtkunstwerk presupposes cooperation between different artists from distinct disciplines, not only for practical or aesthetic reasons but also on ideological grounds. In this regard, the Commodity Exchange Building (De Beurs) by Hendrik Berlage (1903) continues to symbolise a successful gemeenschapswerk. This collaboration between those who designed their art unconditionally for all separate classes instrumentalised democratic civic awareness. Most reviews of the Nieuw Amsterdam highlighted the collaboration between the artists, stressing this unprecedented step compared to the more common approach of commissioning furniture factories.36 Here, the initiative lay with a group of individual designers. The shipping company’s catalogue reflected the same enthusiasm. While individual artists did the

34 Paul Citroen had designed a similar glass 36 ‘s.s. “Nieuw Amsterdam” ’, Elzevier’s decoration of a cityscape featuring canals and Maandtijdschrift xcv, 5 (1938) with articles by bridges, displayed in the cabin class smoking salon. J.G. van Gelder, C. van Traa and A.M. Hammacher. 35 Foucault, ‘Of Other Spaces’, 8. ensel eva besnyö pictures the dutch 71 (25 June 1938) 119-128 (with pictures the first of 119-128 June 1938) (25 Besnyö). Eva by crossing ‘PicturingRussell, the Imperator’, 233. 37 38 First, interior design served to conceal the technology interior design served to conceal the technology First, 38 12-13 12-13 Opbouw 8 en ’, De By the turn of the century, major shipping companies, such as Cunard, as Cunard, such major shipping companies, By the turn of the century, Notwithstanding the impression of a ‘symphonic whole’, the design whole’, ‘symphonic impression ofNotwithstanding the a On the eve of the First World War, Germany took the lead in recruiting Germany On the eve ofWar, World the First ofThe hal opted for a younger but known generation designers, and the Norddeutsche as well as hapag and the Norddeutsche White Star in Great Britain, p & o and interior of began investing in the their passenger ships for Lloyd in Germany, competitive reasons. arose in part from an unfortunate incident. In the same year that the keel In the same year unfortunate incident. arose in part from an of Construction died unexpectedly. the intended architect laid (1936), was One of the course. Line (hal) immediately switched the Holland-America authorised to one each a small team of assembled directors quickly designers, was unusual in the history of a measure Such interior contract specific artists. involved individually on although artists had been design of ocean liners, previous occasions. work, the outcome was a joint effort through which ‘a symphonic whole symphonic ‘a which effort through a joint was the outcome work, ‘The performance the finished to is comparable result achieved’: has been of to the parts in proper relation all its constituent with an assembled choir impulse, from a common for it emanates is simultaneous, Its character whole. of by a diversity unencumbered with which and borrowed styles treatments interior The express themselves.’ to often endeavour schools contemporary ‘breathes the spirit ofdesign a nation’. modernist decorators, when the Norddeutsche Lloyd contracted Bruno Paul, Lloyd contracted Bruno Paul, when the Norddeutsche modernist decorators, celebrated art historian and the hapag (Hamburg-America Line) consulted the modernist trend continued, During the Interbellum the Warburg. Aby ofgradually culminating in the construction British and the French counterparts ofAmsterdam: the acclaimed Orion (1935) and ss the Nieuw ss Queen Mary (1936). as well as the critically assessed Normandie (1935), interior designer of the leading Dutch that ignoring for example Lion Cachet, the In hindsight, day (who in 1938 completed a long series of assignments). Who of internationally list ofWho’s the sixty participating artists reads like a Nel Klaassen, Dirk Bus, Johan Polet, prominent artists in 1938: John Raedecker, Eschauzier, A. F. Ben Merkelbach, Oud, J.J.P. Wijdeveld, Th. H. Citroen, Paul of the ship by simulating the ambience of luxury hotels. When third-class of by simulating the ambience of the ship luxury hotels. be made for the cheapest similar arrangements had to cabins were introduced, international aristocratic taste prescribed the Purported accommodations. of ‘art scorned the designer’s Critics use of styles. historical revival various Art Deco – Art Nouveau and contemporary styles – and gradually deception’, The introduction of bourgeois conventions coincided with were considered. nationalisation of design styles. . Even the critical . Even Seabrook, Amsterdam Nieuw architect and designer Mart of sense felt Stam ‘a pride’ ‘Het the on vessel: visiting passagiersschip De “Nieuw Amsterdam”

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and Sybold van Ravesteyn. All these artists had proven their merits as painters, sculptors or architects in Dutch society and by succeeding those before them ventured into new territory with this ship’s interior. J.F. Semey was the only prominent decorator with experience at sea.39 Besnyö was also exceptional among the over sixty artists. In addition to providing a fragment of the Gesamtkunstwerk, as a photographer of the building process, she conveyed a comprehensive impression. A hint of a recursive image, or ‘Droste effect’, appears in the inclusion of Besnyö’s picture of the New Amsterdam at the Rotterdam shipyard. In her study Designing Liners, Anne Wealleans argues that ultimately none of the true leading European artisans of modernism helped design ocean liners. The Nieuw Amsterdam leads this view to be qualified. H. Th. Wijdeveld, architect of the art deco pavilion at the 1930 World Exhibition in Antwerp, and J.J.P Oud, architect of the Rotterdam Café de Unie (1925), in the tradition of De Stijl, were prominent in the global modernist movement. Wijdeveld had also worked on all kinds of utopian urban planning projects. Many more artists adopted the style conventions and artistic ideals of modernism. Perhaps the decoration program derived from the location of the shipping company in Rotterdam (the capital of Dutch modernism).40 Still, the design was not as radically modernist as aficionados of either Functionalism, Neue Sachlichkeit or Nieuwe Bouwen would have liked. In the mid-1930s, many artists had mitigated their radicalism, and the intensive consultation with hal director De Monchy may have smoothed remaining rough edges. The rejection of Gerrit Rietveld’s elaborate design of one cabin and of W.H. Gispen’s attenuated furniture design of another illustrate this point. Several reviewers mentioned the mismatch between design and structure. Bauhaus collaborator Johan Niegeman even derided both the muddled plan and the aesthetic façade: one common room after another filled with ‘glass, etchings, textiles, sculptures, paintings, several nude women and fish’, a medley of ‘deceit’ and ‘empty pathos’, i.e. kitsch.41 This was

39 Semey had contributed to the ‘ms Bloemfontijn’ (Rotterdam 2001). The original architect Leendert of the Holland-Afrika Lijn that was put into van der Vlugt and architecture firm Brinkman & service by the United Netherlands Steamship Van der Vlugt designed, in conjunction with Mart Co Ltd (vnsm): Schip en Werf 1 (20 October Stam, the Van Nelle Factory (1930), now on the 1934). S. Van Ravesteyn published an overview World Heritage List. focusing on the work of Cachet, De sierkunst op 41 J. Nieman, ‘De Nieuw-Amsterdam’, De Acht en Nederlandsche passagiersschepen (Rotterdam 1924). Opbouw 12-13 (25 June 1938), 128-129. Nieman was See also Ida Falkenberg-Liefrinck, ‘Over inrichten the nephew of Wijdeveld via his sister. He worked en vormgeven van schepen’, De 8 en Opbouw 12-13 in Dessau (Bauhaus) and was also involved in (June 25 1938) 112-118. the avro building in which Besnyö contributed a 40 Marlite Halbertsma and Patricia van Ulzen (eds.), photo wall. Interbellum Rotterdam: Kunst en cultuur 1918-1940 ensel eva besnyö pictures the dutch 73 ’,

43 The New 45 The interior design The interior design 42 She had travelled the same road as She had travelled Ibidem. Loghem, ‘HetVan motortankschip “Pendrecht” 126. . Besnyö Eva Diepraam, van beeld Een 44

46 44 45 , 5 (1938) , 5 (1938) 46 The heterotopia of an ocean liner in the era of passenger transport The ship’s heterotopia contains fragments of illusions, dreams and contains fragments of heterotopia illusions, The ship’s These words also apply to the structure of the photo wall. The ofThese words also apply to the structure the photo wall. “Nieuw Amsterdam”, 1938’. “Nieuw Amsterdam”, 1938’. ‘ was an opportunity to devise an ideal world, albeit a gradually changing one. one. albeit a gradually changing devise an ideal world, an opportunity to was desires. Reviewers projected their own utopian illusions onto the interior. illusions onto the interior. Reviewers projected their own utopian desires. ‘harmony with enable mankind to live in should Modernist architecture At imitating an artwork aboard. insisted a critic, rhei, Panta the universe’. vanity of the infinity, experienced the spatial and temporary travellers sea, sophisticated buzzing beehive. technically while floating in a mankind, exemplifies the transition from transnational neo-aristocracy the transition from exemplifies national to a style of ignoring the international largely style, bourgeois modernism. disappointing because, as another reviewer noted, a cautious effort had been effort had a cautious noted, reviewer as another because, disappointing of the aura to discard made the interiors to permeate that tended snobbery appearance’ and ostentatiousness ‘pompous reducing the of passenger ships, ship interiors. standard in previous that had been Crossing the Atlantic offered passengers seven days to embrace the Atlantic offered passengers Crossing the The artists were the transitory nature oftemporality of life). the journey (i.e. nature and man- and mediating the contrast between tasked with elucidating But the ideals and infinity. demarcation made culture or between temporality, if of and transcendence would not be achieved, fulfilment harmonisation, rather than openly exposed. contrasts remained concealed, Besnyö drive had committed aligned with the New Photography to which in After her education and typography. architecture ‘new’ in to innovate Besnyö had perfected the style formats of in the New Photography Hungary, there.’ ‘I weighed anchor 1930s Berlin: her compatriots László Moholy-Nagy and György Kepes. Life in Berlin was and György Kepes. her compatriots László Moholy-Nagy the ‘At As Besnyö recalls: in artistic and social utopian vistas. intense and rich time we all shared the fantasy of of a different and better way life’. Photographer felt challenged by the velocity of geometry ofPhotographer felt challenged traffic, modern Embraced by the modern age, the bustle of and the Großstadt. architecture, (a concept Besnyö rightfully described it is striking that in the picture wall of she used familiar themes in representations the innovation’) ‘an as stations and the modernist line-up largely avoiding of buildings, Netherlands, from the German photographer bridges that she had emulated successfully tradition and features Dutch the photo wall Instead, Albert Renger-Patzsch. Han how architect was ‘Landscapes and robust women,’ social stereotypes. with a hint of oil tanker, on the Pendrecht the wall Loghem described van derision. J.G. ‘s.s. van Gelder, 302. 302-309: ‘Inleiding’. xcv Maandtijdschrift Elzevier’s A. ‘Het M. 325. Hammacher, schip’,

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Social imagery at sea coincided with an increase in transatlantic crossings and refinement of class-based passenger policy. In equipping ships for passenger transport, tourists and wealthy travellers were the first consideration. Ordinary migrants undertook the crossing in dreadful steerage conditions. In this respect, the White Star Titanic disaster in 1912 firmly embedded social distinctions at sea in our collective memory. Around the turn of the century, third-class cabin accommodations became more common and led spatial conventions to be rearranged. On the one hand, an ocean liner was a perfect closed space for bringing about and maintaining social differences; on the other hand, even the well-to- do passengers faced challenges in avoiding unwanted social contact. Etiquette books offered some solace, but imposed segregation was in some respects a more successful strategy. This also holds true for the less-noted gender segregation. Besnyö’s photo wall was situated in the third class smoking salon: a common area where men ordinarily went to smoke and to seek out social interaction.47 Devising this male domain, emulating the social club ashore, met the need for temporary separation of men and women aboard. Lounges, social halls, drawing-rooms, boudoirs, music rooms and smoking salons: all met the perceived need for class and gender-based seclusion. After the First World War, Victorian etiquette became a nuisance and even led the public to object to using the smoking room as an exclusively male domain. The structural rigor of gender segregation (‘this room is for gentlemen only’) subsided. Still, the idealised drawing in the ship’s catalogue reveals only men in the third class smoking salon aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam. Only in the adjacent bar do we glimpse a female figure. Visualisations of the nation through class and gender differences appears to have been taken as an attractive social illusion of civic society. As recapturing the sensation of actual passengers entering the smoking room obviously remains difficult, other aspects to take into account are probably the movement of people, the sound and rhythm of the engines, and the smells of the ship. Nevertheless, as they drifted across the boundless ocean, the solid foundation of Besnyö’s vivid Dutch images must have been comforting to the passengers. The leftist author Maurits Dekker has conveyed the prevailing ambience in a novel. Sailing from New York to Rotterdam on the eve of war, the main character is overwhelmed by the opulence on board: ‘And this is only tourist class. Crazy! In the past he would have reviled the idle rich for whom these floating palaces were built, while now, in front of a stranger, he was proud of a ship on which he did not possess even one rivet.’ They then sail

47 Douglas Hart, ‘Sociability and “separate spheres” on the North Atlantic; the interior architecture of British Atlantic liners, 1840-1930’, Journal of Social History 44, 1 (2010) 189-212. ensel eva besnyö pictures the dutch 75 49

50 .

48 : http://doi.org/10.18352/ Pictures of the ship Review Historical Countries -Low 51 remarked on the ‘nationalen toon’ (1898-1948)’, bmgn (1898-1948)’, 3-29. (2015) doi 130:4 bmgn-lchr.10140. One mp , 22 Proceedings Parliamentary the of Minutes and 6 March, 1935. 1934 November , 8 April 1937. Quotation in Delftsche Courant 50 51 In 1934-1935 financing shipbuilding was a frequent topic ofwas shipbuilding In 1934-1935 financing For three years, newspapers reported on the construction of newspapers the Nieuw three years, For parliamentary debate. A second passenger ship, in addition to the ss second passenger ship, A parliamentary debate. to secure regular ten-day would allow the Holland-America Line Statendam, however, government, The Dutch York. service between Rotterdam and New of Members refused to provide the necessary extra funding. Parliament the competitive edge ofemphasised that the project would enhance the In their speeches, shipping and shipbuilding industry in Rotterdam. Dutch was as one mp claimed, State support, mps invoked nationalist rhetoric. was indispensable flag” “Dutch The nation. approved by the entire Dutch ‘building the ship in a as a second mp stated, [on the high seas]; and, not at all unusual). in fact was (which would be foolish’ German shipyard through the canal that connects Rotterdam to the sea. There lies ‘the land with land ‘the There lies the sea. to Rotterdam that connects the canal through stains ofand brown with red dotted and, rooftops meadows, gentle green flat, Countryside as mills. steeple and some a church the countryside, deeper into ship enters when the Finally, of a world the sea, spacious as and peace’. silence the national anthem. quay start singing soldiers on the the port, The vessel ultimately functioned as one huge floating signifier functioned as one huge floating signifier The vessel ultimately of tradition- ofAs a symbol the national grandeur and tradition. ingenuity, based technical for public found to be an incentive reconstruction of was the ship the nation, repertoire ofevents where the standard deployed. banal nationalism could be Eventually, the government agreed to issue a loan to finance building the a loan to finance building the the government agreed to issue Eventually, were selected through this political intervention, The interior architects ship. their support for the arts in times because the government wished to express of crisis. noting the simple interior condemning the gaudiness aboard and Amsterdam, artists’. most skilful Dutch ‘the decoration by some of at sea were printed on postcards and in illustrated books and, as noted above, as noted above, illustrated books and, at sea were printed on postcards and in One caption read: in photos. Besnyö assigned to capture the shipbuilding was ship sails, When the ‘The it is still courageous. Netherlands has shown that The magazine person can take pride in this magnificent work.’ every Dutch (Amsterdam nek in de laars De Maurits Dekker, 118, 138. 1945) (London 1995) Michael Billig, Nationalism Banal and with regard the Netherlands: to Susie ‘PhotographyProtschky, a and of the Making in the Netherlands Monarchy Colonial Popular, East Indies during Queen Wilhelmina’s Reign A national spectacleA national

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 Parade with a model of the ss Nieuw Amsterdam, picture postcard. Collection author. ensel eva besnyö pictures the dutch 77 The Polygoon The Polygoon This article 52 55 (Rijswijk 1993) 419-496, 467. 419-496, (Rijswijk 1993) The ship, this time full size, time full size, this The ship, 54 J.C.H. Blom, ‘Nederland in: J.C.H. sinds 1813’, Blom de and E. Lamberts van (eds.), Geschiedenis Nederlanden , 9 August 1938. See Protschky, Protschky, See , 9 August 1938. Maasbode De ‘Photography’.

54 55 ’, Het Upon the completion of the interior decoration one year later, Upon the completion of the interior decoration one year later, 53 In several spectacles the ship came to symbolise modern Dutch Dutch to symbolise modern spectacles the ship came In several another public viewing was scheduled. Again, interest surpassed expectations. interest surpassed expectations. Again, scheduled. another public viewing was fortieth anniversary at the celebration ofWilhelmina’s Queen That same year, a replica of built and paraded through as sovereign, the hal vessel was horse-drawn inserted between the steam engine and Rotterdam, tram: a festive sight.’ it was ‘Illuminated at night, The most striking feature of been the have nationalism is said to Dutch of own country in favour zealous oflack general deep devotion to one’s as or, and even cosmopolitanism support for an international orientation abilities. with one’s satisfaction’ ‘mature Hans Blom writes, even became part of a tour of Rotterdam. Size, whether miniature or full scale, even became part of whether miniature or full scale, Size, a tour of Rotterdam. did matter for the appreciation of the ship. was launched launched Amsterdam was the Nieuw April 1937 In engineering. industrial many references name of as the and, the ship indicates, flag-waving with much East America for the Dutch ofwho sailed to to the voyage Hudson, Captain ‘oranje- was not the seventeenth-century the flag hoisted Alas, India Company. (orange-white-blue) the current red-white-and-blue but one. blanje-bleu’ those ‘proud fortress of the sea’, was flying at the mast Once the flag of the Wilhelmus, sang the and Prime Minister Colijn Wilhelmina Queen present, ‘All bared their heads anthem five years earlier. had become the national which a model ofAmsterdam was the Halve Also aboard the Nieuw in deference.’ Maen (half in ship that sailed the Hudson River the first European moon), its lofty through and mighty ship,/which, proud ‘A the seventeenth century: ancient fame.’ recounts/Holland’s Amsterdam” “New name, indeed took on a double meaning, as socialism and as socialism meaning, a double took on indeed ons leven Ons werk, Wij. title 1930s. by the pride national longer excluded no solidarity international newsreel featured the launch. The department store De Bijenkorf sold Nieuw newsreel featured the launch. had a Wijdeveld and lead designer Hendrik Architect Amsterdam biscuits. thousand grandstand Twenty-five the ship. special axe designed to launch quays to watch and many thousands more crowded the were available, tickets the spectacle. , 12 April 1937. , 12 9 May 1938 and 25 May 1938 1938 May and 25 1938 9 May Nieuwsblad, Utrechts Hippo(poem by Kreen). ‘Wijdeveld’ April, 11 1937; in De Dagblad Algemeen Grondwet , 10 May 1938 1938 May , 10 uit’, Nieuwsblad Het‘Zeegat Utrechts (on details launch) the of ship’s and ‘De driekleur op degeheschen “Nieuw-Amsterdam” Coda: Remythologisation Coda: 53 52 article – artikel

reflects on this widespread notion, recently termed Dutch anti-nationalist nationalism.56 This discourse of implicit nationalism, which according to Kesˇic´ and Duyvendak still resonates with the progressive and liberal left, may have originated in the early decades of the twentieth century. In any event, by the 1930s nationalist ideology became more widespread, precisely along these implicit routes. The rise of fascism in Europe corroded the unity of the international avant-garde and led to a reorientation of ‘traditional values and national identity’. In Literary Studies, where the relationship between modernism and nationalism is a longstanding theme, it has been argued that ‘a complex sense of national subjectivity is understood to be at the very root of the work [of modernists]’.57 The work of writers, illustrators, graphic designers and photographers became part of a more widespread nationalism that brought together intellectuals and artists across a broad spectrum comprising Johan Huizinga, Hendrik Marsman and Eva Besnyö.58 The book production on folklore, nature and landscape brings to mind a remythologisation of the nation, in which the complex of Besnyö’s photographic structure, the ship’s technology and interior and the public events serve as a case study.59 This case study shows how modernism came to be defined by rethinking how photography and the photographer related to art, popular taste and mass culture. Besnyö’s photo wall, featuring characteristic Dutch portraits and landscapes, was commissioned and produced in the very years that popular ideas on folklore and nature were innovated in a wave of publications about the people (especially the denizens of the countryside and the coast – as the core of the nation).60 While avant-garde artists could be receptive to nationalist sentiments, Besnyö, as a Hungarian with Berlin experience, had a more international outlook on life and visual aesthetics despite having to deal with the commercial aspects of art and the artist.

56 Joseph Kesˇic´ and Jan Willlem Duyvendak, ‘Anti- 59 On national myth and technology: Remco nationalist nationalism: the paradox of Dutch Ensel, ‘Nation-Building Behind the Dike. national identity’, Nations and Nationalism 22, 3 Dutch Nationalism and the Visual Culture (2016) 581-597. doi: 10.1111/nana.12187. of Hydraulic Engineering’, Dutch Crossing. 57 Flip Bool, ‘Tussen vernieuwing en traditie, 1925- Journal of Low Countries Studies (2017) 1-22, doi: 1945’, in: Flip Bool et al. (eds.), Dutch Eyes. Nieuwe 10.1080/03096564.2017.1305236. geschiedenis van de fotografie in Nederland (Zwolle 60 Remco Ensel, ‘Going Native: Besnyö’s 2007) 147-189; Sarah Cole, ‘Nationalism and Zeelandish Girl and the Contact Zone of Dutch Modernism’, mfs Modern Fiction Studies 48, 2 Photography’, In Depth of Field 4 (2014): http:// (2002) 453-460. journaldepthoffield.eu/vol04/nr01/a2/en and 58 Rob van Ginkel has charted the discussions in Remco Ensel, ‘Knitting at the beach. Tourism and Op zoek naar eigenheid. Denkbeelden en discussies the Photography of Dutch Fabriculture, Journal over cultuur en identiteit in Nederland (The Hague, of Tourism and Cultural Change (2017) 1-21, doi: 1999). 10.1080/14766825.2017.1335733. ensel eva besnyö pictures the dutch 79 Her attitude, Her attitude, 61 Jameson’s observation that ‘only for modernism, the commodity form commodity the for modernism, ‘only that observation Jameson’s deviating from middle-class convention and kitsch, was in fact a prevailing fact a prevailing in was from middle-classdeviating and kitsch, convention binary starting with aesthetic and ideological By trope of modernism. utopian endeavour Besnyö’s was the photo wall oppositions (kitsch versus art), proved abstraction wall with pictures, Horrified by a to attain transcendence. on course staying the New Photographer, For solutions. to be one of Besnyö’s between the Scylla of abstraction and the Charybdis of modern specific cliché part of was wall The photo both the current discourse on the important. was strategies ofnation and the new visual storytelling. to be a commodity’ (a double bind, or what Benjamin or what bind, (a double a commodity’ not to be the vocation signals The of as the desperate trajectory understood may apply to Besnyö. art) romance and cheap kitsch to accommodate explicitly refused photographer practices of the nationalist to avert unable but was her time. (1966) teaches history teaches Ensel (1966) at the RadboudRemco University Nijmegen. His include interests visualcurrent nationalism, research Holocaust Studies, antisemitism, performance studies and cultural publications memory. include: [with E. Recent Gans] Society Dutch in Postwar Antisemitism of Jew’. ‘the and Histories Israel The Holocaust, Dutch of and the Photography ‘Knitting(Amsterdam 2017); at the beach. Tourism 1-21; Nation-Building(2017) Change Behind Cultural and Tourism of Fabriculture, Journal the Dike. Dutch Nationalism Hydraulic of and the Visual Culture Engineering’, Dutch 1-22. (2017) Email: [email protected]. Studies Countries Low of Journal Crossing. , 32; Howard , 32; Howard Unconscious Jameson, The Political Benjamin. Jennings, Walter Eiland andMichael W. (Cambridge, Life MA,A Critical 291. 2014) 61