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new dutch masters ARTS HOLLAND MAGAZINE ARTS HOLLAND MAGAZINE five galleries five artists Harmen de Hoop PUBLIC SCULPTURE, AMSTERDAM Harmen de Hoop is a true master in site- speci!c art. For many years he invades and disrupts daily surroundings and routines. His work ranges from painting basketball court lines on a busy street intersection to putting plates of dog food in the underground. De Hoop makes people look di"erently at things that have become normal for them. In Public Sculpture, de Hoop’s work immediately becomes part of the neighbourhood and lives on the podium as if it has been there for years and not minutes. VV HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS TEXT - Nina Folkersma is an For a small country with less of a longstanding They function as an intermediary between artists independent curator, critic tradition of collecting contemporary art, the Dutch and collectors, curators, art institutions and the and consultant in the field galleries don’t do so badly. The gallery world in public. In the process, a gallerist assumes various More to Explore of contemporary art. Cur- the urban conglomeration of western Holland is roles: as the artist’s confidant, as a mediator for the rently, she is the chair of the highly dynamic and self-aware – and strikingly public, as an international entrepreneur, or as a Unseen is an annual international photo- board of ArtTable The Neth- international. fundraiser and producer of new work. graphy fair in Amsterdam, that provides erlands and a member of new photo graphy the platform it deserves. the art advisory committee Arts Holland Magazine visited five galleries in the The degree of importance that the five gallery own- unseenamsterdam.com of the City of Amsterdam cities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and ers place on these separate activities is reflected for the new North South Utrecht and asked the gallerists about their person- in their policies and gives each gallery a distinct Visit kesselskramerpublishing.com subway line. al motivations. What criteria do they use in select- identity. One may function as a springboard for for interesting art books and magazines ing their artists? How do they relate to ideals about young international talent, while another provides content and to commercial imperatives? How do an international platform for established Dutch tal- Photography venues and events on the galleries function in the international arena and ent. Another focuses on an informed public of art artsholland.com/genre/photography which interests and contacts are involved? What connoisseurs, and yet another aims at a large, are their plans for the future? mixed public. But no matter how disparate, all of the gallerists interviewed have an irrepressible en- These five inspiring talks show that a gallery is like thusiasm for their profession in common. a spider at the centre of the web of the art world. p p 10 11 five galleries five artists ARTS HOLLAND MAGAZINE ARTS HOLLAND MAGAZINE five galleries five artists FLATLAND GALLERY ‘My gallery is not in a very easily accessible place. Utrecht, Amsterdam, Paris And my Dutch public is indeed relatively limited; it consists of a small circle of professionals. I main- Martin Rogge, founder and owner of Flatland Gallery, has just ly sell abroad, to large museum collections in the come back from Paris Photo, the most important photography United States and a bit in Europe, but practically fair in Europe. nothing in Holland. I follow my artists around a lot ‘Especially for the fair, we printed a bulletin on The Sochi and often sell their work where it is presented, in Project by Rob Hornstra, a documentary photographer who museums, at fairs, at biennials. In fact, my shop is has been with our gallery since 2007. Then we covered all the everywhere; sometimes I simply walls of our stand with those bulletins. At such a fair, which is have it tucked under my arm, in THE GALLERY IN extraordinarily expensive and primarily focused on beautifully my iPad. ROTTERDAM IS framed prints, that’s rather daring. ‘Yet the physical place in IMPORTANT TO ‘Rob Hornstra !ts in very well with our gallery because he Rotterdam is very important, as ME AS A PLACE knows how to !nance and publicize his projects in an excep- somewhere to experiment and TO EXPERIMENT tional way. As do Erwin Olaf, Ruud van Empel and Carolein produce things. I always help my AND PRODUCE Smit – all of them artists who have their own specialty and have artists when it comes to !nancing THINGS. already built up an entire oeuvre. The artists we take chances new productions. So the gallery on do have to be reasonably mature, with work that has more is where the !nal production takes place; it’s the or less crystallized. If they don’t yet back o.ce. It is very important for me to have have an oeuvre and they’re suddenly produced the work, so that I can talk about it in a MY AMBITION successful, there’s very soon nothing meaningful way and it’s not a totally virtual world left. What I like best is helping artists that you’re starting from. IS SUPERVISING with the next step, by showing their ‘How do I envision the gallery’s future? I only work at international fairs. And that started four years ago, but my programme is al- THE EXHIBITIONS proves very successful, too. ready pretty good, even though I say so myself. ‘So I don’t focus on Holland at all. My artists need to become a bit better known and OF OUR ARTISTS Everything is much bigger and more there should also be a few more of them. I now rep- ANNET GELINK GALLERY interesting abroad. Besides the gal- resent eleven artists, including Hito Steyerl, Matts AROUND THE lery in Utrecht, where I started out Leiderstam, James Beckett and Rosella Biscotti, Ed van der Elsken was a talented photographer and book of photographs Love on the Left Bank, which instantly in 1983, and the recently opened but I would like to have fourteen or !fteen artists filmmaker who for over forty years captured his encounters made him internationally famous. After that came some WORLD. branch in Amsterdam, I’ve been eventually. Not too many; I want to stay small and with people in photographs, photographic books and films. twenty photobooks. He made several television films, often working out of Paris for six years be able to keep giving them personal attention, Traipsing through metropolitan Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong on subjects related to his own life. now. I have three hundred square metres there in the gallery of which is much more fun.’ and Amsterdam or travelling through Africa and Japan, Magda Danysz, a relatively young gallery with which I also do he liked to aim his camera at individuals who were striking Belgium (Twins), 1968, copyright Ed van der Elsken / projects in Shanghai. In addition to that, I attend six or seven and full of character. He made his debut in 1956 with his Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam international fairs, such as SCOPE Basel, Madrid Photo, Photo ANNET GELINK GALLERY London and Art Brussels. But I don’t have the ambition of be- Amsterdam coming a Gagosian with an establishment in every metropolis. My plans for the future are mainly focused on supervising the ‘When we started out twelve years ago, we were exhibitions of our artists around the world and on the gallery primarily a gallery for young artists, but some GALERIE GABRIEL ROLT programme. For now, I have a programme until the end of of them, like David Malkovic, Yael Bartana and 2015. In the meantime, I will be thinking up new things.’ Ryan Gander have already become quite re- Marijn Akkermans often makes large nowned artists now in midcareer, and their prices drawings in pencil, ink and gouache. On have risen accordingly.’ Annet the white surface of the paper, remark- WILFRIED LENTZ Gelink, founder and director of OUR able scenes full of dramatic and narrative Rotterdam her own gallery in the heart of ARTISTS ARE suggestion unfold. Akkermans combines Amsterdam says that the tricky DEVELOPING a spontaneous drawing movement with ‘A gallery is a kind of self portrait. The work of each artist re- bit now is to keep these artists AND AS A extremely detailed and concentrated -ects some aspect of my personal interests and background, as with the gallery. RESULT WE ARE brushwork. On closer inspection the many does the work of Wendelien van Oldenborgh. Her video instal- ‘David, Yael and Ryan have all GROWING TOO. gradations of gray turn out to be built up of lations are always about people who act as individuals and initi- been acquiring large galleries finely drawn layers of ink. In his most recent ate changes. Architecture is often important to her work, as a abroad, some of which have twenty or thirty peo- series of erotic drawings the oppressive mirror that shows how people move and live together.’ So says ple on the payroll. We might be the biggest gallery atmosphere of his earlier work seems to Wilfried Lentz, an engineer, former director of SKOR and since in Holland, but of course that doesn’t count for have made way for a lighter, softer view of 2008 a gallery owner in Rotterdam. anything internationally. the world. The use of aquarelle gives the ‘In general, you could say that all of the artists a.liated with the ‘Holland has only a limited number of collectors drawings a transparency that emphasizes gallery have an interest in the world around us, a fascination for who are prepared to spend big sums of money on their sensitive quality.

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