Intensely Dutch

This week on Curious Orange, we told you about the opening of an exhibition in Australia… of Dutch art.

Intensely Dutch is a collection of “some of the most important post-war Dutch artists, including those associated with CoBrA (Copenhagen, Brussels, & Amsterdam) and art informel, and those who preceded them, such as Willem de Kooning”.

Even though I’d heard of some of those names (well, ok, just de Kooning, but let’s pretend that I paid more attention in art history class), I couldn’t really picture what an exhibition of their work would look like… so, before the show opened (today!), I spoke to the curator of the exhibit, Hendrik Kolenberg.

Bram Bogart - Daybreak, 1997

Hendrik is actually Dutch-born, though he grew up in Australia (he has an Australian accent, not Dutch - though his Dutch is still better than mine!) and he described the show for me. He used phrases like “embracing modernity”, “post-war optimism”, “primitive art”, and “strong use of colour”… and said the entire show had an immense vitality, energy, and joy.

Um, ok. When I string all those adjectives together it sounds awfully artsy. But if you take a look at some of the pictures from the show (all the ones that Hendrik mentioned in our interview are pictured here), I think you’ll at least agree that there’s a strong use of color and a palpable energy!

Karel Appel - Horizon of Tuscany #36, 1995

In this week’s show we aired a short version of my interview with curator Hendrik Kolenberg… but you can listen to a long version here (or click the “listen” link above).

You can read more about the show on the website of the Art Gallery of New South Wales here… and, if you want to see more of the show but can’t make it all the way to Australia, you can buy the catalog online here.

Willem de Kooning - Two trees on mary street .... amen! 1975

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