Memento mori – Damien Hirst in Dialogue with Rodolphe Bresdin and Odilon Redon; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

“Honour the divine light in the revelations of art.” Well, let’s stick to that.

On my way to the Vincent Award Room in the Gemeentemuseum i passed some Sol LeWitt murals which make it quite easy to honour the divine light.

In the V.A. Room there is hardly any light to honour, let alone to make some proper pictures. But otherwise this is no room for complaining.

The idea of the V.A. Room is to combine and confront works of the Monique Zajfen Collection with works from the Gemeentemuseum’s own collection.

In this case some big photogravures coloured with gouache by Damien Hirst (1965) are confronted with etchings and an ink drawing by Rodolphe Bresdin (1822 – 1885) and some lithographs by Odilon Redon (1840 – 1916).

The whole combination is exhibited under the name Memento mori.

A long time ago i was a great admirer of Hirst’s works, but my admiration has been dwindling for the last two decades. But in spite of the reflections in the glass (or because of them) i must say i was impressed.

Maybe i am too easily impressed, because after all it’s the usual skulls and butterflies, and a dark background to make it a bit spooky. But it works.

The sense of refined luxuriousness in these works reminds you of the pomp and circumstance of old mausoleums of the high nobility. Now these works are purchased by the newly rich. But then again, it works.

Bresdin is famous for his extremely detailed etchings. They are not confronted directly with Hirst’s works. They need other lighting and another way of looking.

So, as other visitors took their time to inspect these etchings i went back to Hirst, looking death into its grinning face.

And back again to Bresdin.

The Hirsts are made to overwhelm you; the Bresdins are made to get lost in.

The Redons are far less detailed.

They are real fin de siècle works with

death, horses and women posing in some mysterious dream space.

This tiny drawing by Bresdin, small as a stamp, is the only work which is really confronting the big Hirsts.

This decadence is intoxicating and

yes, i can’t get enough of these reflections…

But as usual there is always an end to the tunnel!
(And by the way: it’s a very nice exhibition!)

(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

Bertus Pieters

From Picasso to Sol LeWitt, Artist’s Books after 1950; Meermanno-Westreenianum, The Hague

The Meermanno-Westreenianum Museum is one of the finest museums in The Hague, if not in the country. At the moment the exhibition From Picasso to Sol LeWitt, The Artist’s Book after 1950 can be seen. That is

I am a bit late posting this, as it can be seen until next week. Sunday July 13th will be your last chance. Many mouth-watering books are on show, like Another Water by Roni Horn.

The left-handed Punch by Roy Fisher and Ronald King.

Of course Raymond Pettibon cannot be missed in a show like this.

There’s a copy of Alberto Giacometti’s classic Derrière le miroir, as well as

Louise Bourgeois’ and Arthur Miller’s Homely Girl, A Life, where Bourgeois’ illustrations can be opened apart from the text-pages. They open like horriffic butterflies.

Great in quite another way is this book by Lao Tau.

And then there is this impressive book illustrated by Bram van Velde. Well, illustrated, you’d better call it a dialogue (poetry by Charles Juliet).

And more Van Velde. And quite a lot of

work by the versatile Dieter Roth, but in the same room

there’s also a showcase with books by Elsworth Kelly and

one with works by Ed Ruscha. Each room has a monitor showing a hand browsing through one of the books.

Leotard by David Shrigley and

work by Sigmar Polke,

Cy Twombly and

Françoit Morellet amongst many others. And at last,

there’s a table where you can actually open some books yourself!

This way.

Printed Matter by Ulises Carrión,

Geschichte der Wolken (History of the Clouds) by Hans Magnus Enzensberger,

7: Biele Compagnie by Massimo Danielis,

Stillanovel by Carl Andre and

work by Antoni Tapiès,

by Fransje Killaars,

Sjoerd Hofstra,

this fantastic book by Margit Rijnaard and many others. And

there’s a showcase with works by Richard Tuttle.

Herman de vries’ works are well represented (herman de vries will represent the Netherlands at the 2015 Venice Biennale) as are

works by Sol LeWitt.

There isn’t much Picasso, but never mind, this exhibition will make you greedy anyway!

(Click on the pictures to enlarge)

Bertus Pieters