Anima mundi; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Erzsébet Baerveldt, Pietà

Where does human life start and where does it end?

Erzsébet Baerveldt, Pietà

Johan Tahon, Sacrifice

Johan Tahon, Sacrifice

The answer to that question seems to be obvious enough: it starts with birth and it ends with death.

Anonymous, Nkisi nkondi

Anonymous, Nkisi nkondi

Anonymous, Christ at the Whipping Post

Michaël Borremans, The Angel

But our spirit is able to animate dead matter, and if it doesn’t do so physically it tries to do so spiritually.

Michaël Borremans, The Angel

Berlinde De Bruyckere, Into One-Another II To P.P.P.

Berlinde De Bruyckere, Into One-Another II To P.P.P.

We try to grasp life and death in scientific, philosophical, religious, spiritual and artistic ways.

Michel Nedjar, Untitled, Doll

Melanie Bonajo, Matrix Botanica – Biosphere above Nations

Melanie Bonajo, Matrix Botanica – Biosphere above Nations

Desirée Dolron, Vegetarian Festival Thailand

Where are the differences between science and ritual, between description and imagination, between a Congolese nkisi figure and a robot?

Desirée Dolron, Xteriors VIII

Anonymous, Kawe

Reynold Reynolds, Secret Machine

Or are there no real differences?

Reynold Reynolds, Secret Machine

David Altmejd, Delicate Man Contemplating Options

David Altmejd, Delicate Man Contemplating Options

David Altmejd, Delicate Man Contemplating Options

Hans van der Ham (1960) has curated a wonderful and very full summer exhibition in the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam with works and objects varying from robots to Medieval and Renaissance paintings.

Paul de Reus, Doll

Boston Dynamics, Testing Robustness

Boston Dynamics, Testing Robustness

Per room the show is arranged in different chapters.

Boston Dynamics, Testing Robustness

Jeantine Lunshof, Eswar Iyer, Mark Skyler-Scott, Brain organoid

Jeantine Lunshof, Eswar Iyer, Mark Skyler-Scott, Brain organoid

Inez van Lamsweerde, Final Fantasy Series, Wendy

It tries to avoid the sentimental aspects of life and death but instead focuses on the way we try to harness or control life apart from physical human life, and in doing so create different aesthetics.

Head in formaldehyde

Baby in formaldehyde

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Augustijn Claterbos

As such aesthetics has become a matter of life and death.

Augustijn Claterbos

Augustijn Claterbos

Berlinde De Bruyckere

This is surely one of the most inspired and inspiring thematic exhibitions of the season.

Anonymous, Uramun

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

© Villa Next Door 2018

Content of all photographs courtesy to the owners of the works and to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Bertus Pieters

Fra Bartolommeo: The Divine Renaissance; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

The great exhibition about Fra Bartolommeo (1472 – 1517) in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is in its last week.

Study for a Flying Angel, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Study for the Kneeling Virgin, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

There are some great master paintings on show.

Study for Saint Joseph, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen

They are presented with drawings, studies for the paintings, which give you an idea of how the master worked. The Boijmans has one of the biggest collections of Fra Bartolommeo drawings.

Study of Rock Formation, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

In the background: God the Father and Sts Catherine of Siena and Mary Magdalen, Palazzo Mansi, Lucca

The show is extensively documented, which can be a bit of a drawback if you are waiting to take a closer look at a drawing, while somebody else is reading.

Study of the Head of a Friar, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

In the background: Madonna della Misericordia, Villa Guinigi, Lucca

When i visited today however it wasn´t very busy.

Composition Study for The Madonna della Misericordia, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Study of a Man Walking to the Right, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

The exhibition is quite spacious and the use of anti-reflective glass makes the drawings very visible.

Study for Draperies, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Composition Study for ‘Salvator Mundi’, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

One may or may not like the modern and rather un-intimate setup, but it makes you feel freer to move around and there are very clear sightlines.

Study for the Kneeling St. Margaret, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

The drawings are composition studies and studies of details and figures.

Study for a Flying Child Angel Playing the Lute, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Study for St. Bartholomew, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Posture and gesture are the most important elements in the figure drawings.

Study for the Head of St. Catherine, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Study for St. Peter, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Due to the subdued light it was quite difficult to make some proper pictures, so i apologize for that.

Study with Hands and Friar’s Heads, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Portrait of Fra Niccolò della Magna, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

If you haven’t yet seen it, this week is your last chance!

Study for the Head of the Christ Child, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

© Villa Next Door 2017

Content of all pictures courtesy to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

 

Bertus Pieters

Ugo Rondinone, Vocabulary of Solitude; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

As a child i didn’t trust clowns.

That feeling didn’t change ever since.

It also made me reluctant to visit Ugo Rondinone’s first solo exhibition in the Netherlands in Boijmans Van Beuningen.

However, I must admit I have to adjust my feelings, as indeed, Rondinone’s show Vocabulary of Solitude is quite impressive.

Each clown is sitting or lying on the floor, its gaze inward.

This is much more than the usual sentimental, crying clowns. This is a real image of solitude.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Contents of the pictures courtesy Ugo Rondinone, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

 

Bertus Pieters

James Lee Byars, works from the archives of Flor & Lieve Bex and Wies Smals; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Trying to see the details….

I went to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, amongst others to see the James Lee Byars exhibition and possibly to write a review about it for Villa La Repubblica.

However, the works were so badly presented that I was quite disappointed.

The works are from the archives of Flor & Lieve Bex and Wies Smals and mainly consist of wonderfully shaped and folded letters and other works on paper.

But if you want to look at them properly, your eyes have to fight the reflections of yourself and of the lighting from the ceiling in the glass of the showcases.

The works on the walls are put up too high.

If you want to deter the public from liking this very likable work, you should present it this way.

Byars, who always strove for perfection, really deserves better.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Contents of pictures courtesy Flor & Lieve Bex, Wies Smals, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

 

Bertus Pieters

Jan van de Pavert, Models; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

To write a review for Villa La Repubblica about Jan van de Pavert’s exhibition Models, I went to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Click here to read the full review (in Dutch) and see some extra pictures.

Many of Van de Pavert’s works are based on architectural or designer ideas.

He creates models in which you might use your imagination in an alternative way.

The presentation in Boijmans is quite modest but fine, inspiring and imaginative.

It just makes you hope to see a bigger and more integrated show as Van de Pavert works in quite a few different disciplines that are all connected.

[Click on the pictures to enlarge]

Contents of the pictures courtesy Jan van de Pavert and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

 

Bertus Pieters