Archives: Tentoonstellingen

• The first major retrospective of Eugène Brands with over a hundred works
• Brands created a rich and wide-ranging oeuvre around various themes, such as the children’s drawings, the ‘panta rhei’ principle (everything flows) and the universe
• Brands was the initiator of the first, illustrious CoBrA exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1949

In 21018 the exhibition Eugène Brands: from studio to universe was on view at the Cobra Museum. This major retrospective – with over a hundred works – is a journey through the various periods of Brands’ oeuvre, starting in his living room studio and ending in the cosmos. The exhibition includes Brands’ surrealist work from the 1940s, the CoBrA period, the childlike figuration of the 1950s, and his abstract work on both earthly and cosmic themes.

Eugène Brands preferred to withdraw to the familiar surroundings of his studio at home. There he created his own microcosm in which he surrounded himself with his main sources of inspiration, including world music, ethnography and knowledge about the universe. From this domestic environment, Brands used his work to reflect upon the macrocosm and the attendant existential questions about life.

Brands was only briefly involved with CoBrA. In his CoBrA period, Brands abandoned the surrealistic elements in his work and painted in a fluent, (lyrical) abstract style. His artistic output alternated between gouaches and large oil painting and ‘reliefs’ of painted wood and found materials. He shared his interest in folk art and surrealism with the other members of the CoBrA group.

Inspired by his CoBrA period and his daughter Eugénie, who started drawing around this time, Brands began making figurative work with a remarkably childlike visual idiom in 1951. It was the childish innocence of children’s drawings that appealed to him, but also the strangeness and sometimes sinister undertone. He longed to express himself in a similarly uninhibited manner.

In the mid-60s, Brands found inspiration in the landscape, in nature and its mystery. Through these subjects in his painting, he also managed to find a new place in his oeuvre for his long-held fascination with the cosmos, the planets and stars. The ‘panta rhei’ principle of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus was central in this: the idea that everything flows, everything moves and everything is infinite. This resulted, among other things, in large abstract works that allowed more space for existential musings.

The exhibition Eugène Brands: between studio and universe is compiled by the Cobra Museum in collaboration with Eugénie Brands and the Eugène Brands Foundation. Works are on loan from the Christian Ouwens Collection, T.S. Okker, and the Kok – Van den Leuvert Collection, among others.

These and other collectors are central in the book initiated by Eugénie Brands and author Ruud Lapré, that will be published by 99 Uitgevers: 10 x verzameld (’10 x collected’). The book will be presented on the day of the exhibition opening, on 19 January at the Cobra Museum.

Upon the request of the Cobra Museum, the Danish artist Jakob Kolding (Denmark, 1971) presents Corbulations, a new work developed in response to the exhibition Le Corbusier’s Fourth Dimension. Corbulations makes optimum use of the various positions between the work of Le Corbusier, the work of the CoBrA artists and the perspective of the artist himself.

In Corbulations these perspectives are played out in an exhibition layout conceived by Kolding, including works by Le Corbusier (ranging from paintings and tapestries to sculptures and drawings) and CoBrA artworks. These are furthermore combined with a series of new collages and a range of cut-out figures by Kolding, that interact with each other, the other works on display, as well as with the exhibition visitor. The work is subdivided into three themes. The start and the end of the exhibition are literally framed by the theme Architecture. Two other themes are the human body, and ‘plan’ and ‘play’.

Kolding’s work revolves around an expanded notion of collage, often creating constellations of objects (he speaks of spatial collages) in which the social, physical, psychological and political are merged.

Kolding has shown a keen interest in modern architecture since he was young: “In a way I almost literally grew up in between Le Corbusier – without whom a suburb like Albertslund would not have existed – and Asger Jorn and Cobra – with posters in my childhood home. Between the plan and the dérive. These two positions profoundly influenced me while growing up, and later seeped into my work. Although often presented as contradictory positions, they are of course also part of each other. You cannot have a plan without life, without play, as both Le Corbusier and Asger Jorn knew well, even if they approached it differently, maybe even from opposite directions.”

“Only fun can validly oppose the system”

The Cobra Museum of Modern Art in Amstelveen displays an extensive selection from the works of the Italian artist Enrico Baj (1924-2003). Enrico Baj: Play as Protest is a simultaneous re-introduction in the Netherlands of this freespirited artist’s work. The exhibition displays about 100 of the artist’s works dating from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Enrico Baj’s works look playful, colourful and humorous, but simultaneously show his sharp socio-critical, even anarchist, attitude. Baj himself stated that “only fun can validly oppose the system”. Baj used play as a form of engagement and creation as a form of protest. His work was a protest against fascism, totalitarian systems, the power of the ruling class and the potential annihilation of the environment (the then new nuclear threat). The exhibition shows how Baj playfully used the strategies of satire and deliberate disrespect as means of protest against a society that seems to be on the constant verge of self-destruction.

Baj developed a highly original visual language with assemblage paintings bursting with fun. Just like the Cobra artists, Baj loved to experiment with materials and media, and the exhibition includes not only paintings but also ceramics, Meccano sculptures, assemblages, publications and manifests. The exhibition begins in the 50s with works from the period by the Movimento Arte Nucleare, founded by Baj. Asger Jorn, co-founder of CoBrA, would later participate in this movement. Jorn also had a special bond with Baj. He wrote in 1953, “Dear Comrade, this is the first bond of friendship I’ve entered into after my years of isolation. It would be my pleasure to work together.”

The exhibition includes Baj’s series Generali (Generals) from the first half of the 60s, with which he also participated in the Venice Biennial in 1964. The Generals are absurd characters that partly consist of found objects like belts and medals. Works from the 70s include sculptures from Meccano toys, which provide a commentary on the improvident use of technology and the automation of humans in society.

The exhibition closes with the 12-metre wide work I funerali dell’anarchico Pinelli (Funeral of the anarchist Pinelli) from 1972. This work was a reaction to the real events and was censored in Italy at the time, but then shown internationally in other museums like Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (1973).

Unfortunately, we must conclude that threats similar to those against which Baj protested still exist in today’s society. In an interview between artist Maurizio Cattelan and Baj, made especially for the catalogue, the comparison is made with the war in Syria and the current real danger of environmental issues. For these reasons, the Cobra Museum also looks to contemporary protest groups. On 23 April the museum will collaborate with the Vrije Bond and hold an Anarchist BAJ gathering dedicated to lectures, poetry, anarcho folk music, documentaries and a tour of the exhibition by art historian and anarchist Dick Gevers.

Enrico Baj: Play as Protest is curated by Carrie Pilto in collaboration with Luca Bochicchio in the role of research consultant and with the generous cooperation of Archivio Enrico Baj, Vergiate and Fondazione Marconi, Milan. Theatre maker Beppe Costa has put together an audio tour especially for this exhibition.

The works in the exhibition are mainly from the Archivio Enrico Baj and from Fondazione Marconi in Milan. There are also valuable additional loans from private collections and from the S.M.A.K. in Ghent and Museo d’arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto.

4^th Cobra Art Prize 2011 won by Nathaniel Mellors. He creates absurdist scripts, psychedelic theatre, films, videos, performance, collages and sculpture in which he tests the boundaries between meaning and incomprehensibility. A recurring theme in his multifaceted work is the complex relationship between language and power, which he incorporates in narratives that betray a penchant for satire and the grotesque. In addition to his visual work, Mellors also plays bass guitar in the Advanced Sportswear band and is co-founder of Junior Aspirin Records.

The prize was award to Mellors because of his completely unique visual world and the powerful impact that his work has on viewers. His inventive crossovers between visual art, music, theatre and text fit perfectly with the spirit of the multidisciplinary engagement of the CoBrA artists.

The 2011 jury consisted of Dominic van den Boogerd (director De Ateliers in Amsterdam), Xander Karskens (curator De Hallen in Haarlem), Saskia van Kampen (curator Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam) and Katja Weitering (artistic director Cobra Museum of Modern Art in Amstelveen).

Christian Friedrich (1977 Germany) is the winner of the Cobra Art Prize Amstelveen 2017. The Cobra Art Prize encourages the contemporary art practice of an artist who translates the CoBrA philosophy into the present. Experiment, interdisciplinarity and radicality are at the heart of this legacy. By selecting Christian Friedrich (living and working in Amsterdam and Berlin), the jury honours an artist with a relatively hidden oeuvre. This modest visibility gives Friedrich the freedom to steer a totally idiosyncratic course, which, in terms of subject matter, touches on the mysterious, the uncomfortable and the shameful.

“With Friedrich, the jury honoured an artist who has shown his possession of an exceptionally experimental mind, which is not prepared to compromise. Each step he makes as an artist incorporates shock and the risk of failure. Not many artists with his track record are willing to do that” Jury chair, Domeniek Ruyters

Spectres of Want
The prize consists of € 10,000, a publication and an exhibition at the Cobra Museum. In Friedrich’s work there is always a lot at stake: eschewing recognizable formats or artistic methods, he continuously and freely explores the ways power structures operate in the domain of the physical and the intellectual. A sense of threat is typically permeating his works, while something highly personal is at risk: the integrity of the human body, for example, or the power balance in intimate relations. For Spectres of Want, Friedrich developed three new groups of works, in which he obsessively and sensorially explores the human body as site for crisis and ecstasy.

Alongside Spectres of Want, a publication with texts by Martin Herbert and Xander Karskens will be published, designed by Studio Felix Salut.

Joan Miró (1893-1983) is among the most popular artists in the world.

Joan Miró (1893-1983) is among the most popular artists in the world. Still, it has been almost sixty years ago that his work has been shown in a major exhibition in the Netherlands. Miro & CoBrA shows the versatility of his poetic universe and explores for the first time Miró’s relationship with the artists of the international Cobra movement.

The artworks of Miró are brought into connection with the works of the Cobra artists

Entering the exhibition there’s a reconstruction of Studio Sert, the atelier of Joan Miró in Mallorca. The exhibition itself is divided into five rooms with works by Miró from the twenties to the early eighties; from paintings to works on paper, sculptures and assemblages, ceramics and art books. Throughout the exhibition Miró is brought into connection with the works by CoBrA artists.

The press about Miró & CoBrA:

“shows convincingly that there are more relations between the Spanish master and the much younger experimental painters, than was thought before”
NRC ****

“[T]he most important achievement of Miró & CoBrA is evoking the international atmosphere of creative ideas that float freely in the air, while no-one exactly knows where they come from.”
Elsevier Weekblad

“It’s been almost sixty years since the Netherlands had a big exposition about Joan Miró. Yet he influenced many artists here. The Cobra Museum now compensates that absence”
Noord-Hollands Dagblad

Miró & Cobra at tv-show AVROTROS Opium (from 15:02)

Radicale Sociale Animale Talen is a large-scale exhibition at the Cobra Museum, which loosely explores a number of themes that were relevant to the CoBrA movement. These themes continue to inspire today’s artists, since they have always maintained their artistic and social urgency.

FREEDOM AND ENGAGEMENT

‘Liberation’ and ‘freedom’ were important terms in CoBrA’s vocabulary. The new form of art advocated by artists was intended to go beyond liberating artists from academic rules; it would also release the human spirit from its passive state. This section of the exhibition includes work where unrestrained, almost childlike spontaneity has been a source of inspiration. Erik Van Lieshout is showing his video installation ‘The Island’ (2016). It is an account of the several months the artist spent on an island in a lake near Dortmund, where he passed most of his time in self-imposed isolation.  The attitude and the temporary structures which Van Lieshout made on the island evoke memories about the work of CoBrA member Henry Heerup, an artist who deliberately presented himself in the ironic role of a naive fool, with bare torso and pointy elf hat. The work of Jonas Ohlsson, another contemporary artist in this section, is rooted in social and political engagement, and his interest in the relationship between popular culture and building communities.  The exhibition includes results of a recent residency at the European Ceramic Work Center, where he produced a series of experimental ceramics which reflect his intuitive and direct way of working in this slow medium.

WORD AND IMAGE

Artists and poets in the CoBrA group regularly combined image and text to produce a single integrated piece of work. Christian Dotremont coined the term peinture-mots (word paintings), and he made such works with various collaborators, including Asger Jorn and Pierre Alechinsky. Collaboration and a cross-disciplinary approach were at the heart of CoBrA’s philosophy. In this exhibition section, writer, poet and artist Maria Barnas presents her work ‘The Speech’. Barnas is interested in language as ‘material’, a malleable element which can be used to make and recall images.  Since 1996, Richard Niessen has been working on an oeuvre which he calls ‘Typographic Masonry’. His work involves introducing an amalgam of characters, symbols and ornaments into three-dimensional structures with a non-linear logic. Richard Niessen created the ‘Asemic Cabinet’ for this exhibition..

MATTER

CoBrA’s artistic project was based on a candid confrontation with the world of matter and the creative spirit. The resulting works of art are generally a dialogue between the artist, the materials available, and the tools used by the artist. This section of the exhibition includes work by Karel Appel and Asger Jorn, both of whom are perhaps the most obvious representatives of the urge to experiment with materials within the CoBrA movement. This playful and inquisitive approach to different materials is clearly reflected in the work of Navid Nuur, which is also on display in this section. His recent series ‘Rituals of the Rational’ seems to be based on a curiosity about chemical processes and alchemical transformation. Another perspective taken from CoBrA’s ideas about using materials is provided by Raphaela Vogel. Her work on display in this exhibition is titled Mogst mi du ned, mog i di, and is an installation comprising video, sound, and objects.

Radicale Sociale Animale Talen ​​is an exhibition with a trans-historical character. It brings together works of art from different periods and cultural contexts which share similar attitudes and themes, and illustrates artistic connections which transcend the decades. It means that the present can be looked at using CoBrA as a lens, and conversely CoBrA is opened up to new interpretations. Based on the existing architectural structure and with minimal resources, Gabriel Lester/Polylester developed a modular exhibition architecture.

Pierre Alechinsky: Post CoBrA displays about 90 works spanning five decades from the last living and working CoBrA artist. Many of the drawings and paintings have never been shown before to the public.

Pierre Alechinsky: Post CoBrA is the largest exhibition of Pierre Alechinsky in the Netherlands so far.

Pierre Alechinsky is the last active CoBrA artist. Alechinsky (born in Brussels, 1927) works in his studio in Bougival near Paris and in Provence, not far from Arles, on paintings and graphic works with a lyrical and evocative character that show the influence of Far Eastern calligraphy. The earliest paintings date from 1958 and the most recent from 2015. Some paintings and drawings have never been displayed publicly. This retrospective display fulfils a long-cherished wish of the Cobra Museum.

Maarten Bertheux, guest curator: “Alechinsky paints fantasy figures, animals and plants with undulating and sometimes unfinished brushstrokes. He creates pictures in which natural processes, such as waking up and growing, are visualised. Works full of life, painted with a bright palette, but also works with a darker, more serious tone”.

CoBrA/post-CoBrA

Pierre Alechinsky: Post CoBrA displays about 90 works spanning five decades from the last living and working Cobra artist. With this exhibition it is the first time since the 1960’s there is a major museum survey of this extraordinary artist in the Netherlands. By displaying his work from 1958 up to 2015, a long-cherished wish of the Cobra Museum has been fulfilled.

Pierre Alechinsky previously had museum solo retrospective shows in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (1975), the Guggenheim Museum in New York (1987) and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts (KMSK) in Brussels (2007).