June 1, 2011
As promised I have uploaded lots and lots of photos to Flickr for you to watch. Visit the exhibition (well, most of it) from the comfort of your armchair.
I still have to add a bit of meta-data but most of what needs to be there, is.
While you’re at it, don’t hesitate to visit the Artzuid Flickr pool with work from photographers much more talented than I.
(Shown here: Equus by Yubi Kirindongo)
Tags: Art Zuid
May 30, 2011
Is art supposed to be elitist? It seems a lot of people did not get that memo, as the 2011 edition of the open air Art Zuid exhibition in Amsterdam drew quite a crowd this Sunday. The bashful sun did not hurt, nor did the accessible, often cartoonish art.
There are some more photos below the fold, and I will post lots and lots more on Flickr as soon as I have the time.
(more…)
Tags: Art Zuid, outdoors, sculptures
May 21, 2011
Last Thursday a cartoon depicting an altar boy raped with a crucifix was stolen from the Limburgs Museum in Venlo, Limburg.
According to Nieuwsblad, the thief took the drawing and just walked out.
The cartoon was made by Peter van Straaten for Vrij Nederland magazine, and netted the artist the Inkspotprijs 2010 award for best political cartoon of that year. It was part of an exhibition on cartoons, and was to be shown in Utrecht in October.
Meanwhile Toby Sterling reports that a priest of the Roman Catholic Salesian order was discovered to have been a board member of the Martijn Foundation, which tries to promote child abuse [1]. The priest’s membership was known to his superiors, who did not think it a big deal. Predictably the Catholic Church claimed “the church utterly rejects pedophilia”. “Dutch Catholic Church spokesman Pieter Kohnen said Saturday that […] if Superior Claes did not act quickly to reform the Dutch Salesian order’s leadership, the matter would be referred to Rome.”
[1] I’d link to the Association’s website, but it portrays children in a sexualized context, which might get readers in trouble.
(Illustration: Vrij Nederland / Peter van Straaten)
Tags: Catholicism, child pornography, Martijn, politics, Venlo
May 12, 2011
It’s true, this year’s edition of Art Amsterdam held at the RAI exhibition centre was indeed very international, with galleries from all over the Netherlands as well as ones from Paris, Montréal, Seoul, Berlin and more. 24oranges was lucky enough to walk around on VIP night before the fair opens to the general public today, running until 15 May, courtesy of a sponsor of art site Trendbeheer.com.
Instead of just selling art like the other galleries, Trendbeheer are doing something cool, they call ‘For The Love of Money’. Managing Director Niels Post, an artist himself (we saw his stuff in the 1500 euro or less art lounge) explained the plan to sell 150 unique works at 150 euro a pop with a frame and box. The works themselves (seen in the pic) are hi-resolution pictures taken of works of art at the fair with a red dot, meaning they have been sold. Photographers are taking turns running around the fair ‘dot hunting’ and snapping pics of sold works, printing them out, framing them and then selling them. Almost all the ones in this picture were sold and from the moment they started, it was going fast.
Of all the stuff I saw, this German work of art from I totally forgot to write it down shame on me caught my eye, probably because it had words on it.
If you’re up to buying art for your office or design studio, you have to check this art fair out. They also have books and there are presentations and even tours of the exhibition. If you just want to look at cool stuff, this is not quite the right venue, but it will give anyone with artist’s block some good ideas.
Tags: Amsterdam, exhibition, RAI
May 6, 2011
The verdict is in: Amsterdam based Danish artist Nadia Plesner who attends the Rietveld academy in Amsterdam successfully defended herself against major French brand Louis Vuitton. Plesner used a depiction of an LV bag in a painting entitled Darfurnica for which Louis Vuitton tried to sue her for 5,000 euro a day for using their image.
“The court in The Hague ruled that Plesner’s right to freedom of expression through her work weighed more heavily than Louis Vuitton’s right to protect its property. The use of the bag in the painting is both functional and in proportion, the court said,” according to Dutchnews. Case closed.
(Link: dutchnews.nl, Photo: Nadia Plesner)
Tags: justice, Louis Vuitton, Rietveld
April 22, 2011
Until 25 May these elephants will be adorning the city of Heerlen, Limburg, which can proudly be listed as a host of these works of art alongside big cities such as Rotterdam, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and London. The Elephant Parade can be admired in and around the city centre — have fun finding all 30 elephants, I found about 10. The elephants were designed by local, regional and Thai artists, as the goal is to eventually raise money with an auction for the Asian Elephant Foundation to help protect the Asian elephant. Convincing the foundation to set up the Elephant Parade in a small, lesser-known Dutch city was done by a group of local women who come up with ways to let their ‘problematic’ old mining city smile again. It worked for me.
April 21, 2011
This prim little garden can be found at the Hygiea Square in Amsterdam. Guerilla garden is perhaps too strong a word for something so small and neat.
April 12, 2011
The Lookout Rabbit was made of concrete, sand, grass, metal, wood, paint and cement coating by Rotterdam artist Florentijn Hofman who has this thing for cute animals.
The Lookout Rabbit is a temporary 12-meter high sculpture. It’s a rabbit with a red dot which you can enter and have a look out over the Waal river. The arwork is located at the Valkhofpark in Nijmegen and will stay put for at least six months.
There’s even a making of the Lookout Rabbit.
(Link and photo: florentijnhofman.nl)
Tags: bunnies, Florentijn Hofman, Nijmegen, rabbit
March 22, 2011
Spring and the Keukenhof, the world’s largest flower garden that attracts visitors from around the world has a new red-brown tulip named after Vincent van Gogh.
Omroep Brabant got an explanation from Amsterdam’ Van Gogh Museum that there is no relation whatsoever between the flower and Van Gogh. He’s never even painted tulips, but he did like flowers.
(Link: vangoghmuseum, omroepbrabant.nl, Photo of Van Gogh tulip by vangoghmuseum)
Tags: Keukenhof, tulips, Vincent van Gogh
March 13, 2011
French bag maker Louis Vuitton has gotten itself a so-called ex parte judgement against Amsterdam based Danish artist Nadia Plesner, forcing her to cough up 5000 euro per day or stop using images of Vuitton’s Audra Bag.
Plesner had incorporated an image of the bag in her painting Darfurnica. On January 27 judge Hensen denied her the chance to defend herself in court, so that by the time she returned from a trip to Denmark she had already racked up tens of thousands of euro in fines. She will contest the judgement (PDF).
Plesner has already received a judgement against her for a similar ‘offence’ in France. Under Dutch copyright law she is unlikely to be found against, but this was a case about community design law, and I don’t know if that law has free speech exceptions.
Vuitton’s actions seem an obvious attempt to control the conversation about them. You cannot really blame a wild animal for being a wild animal, the fault lies clearly at the feet of the state giving it the means.
An ex-parte order is a travesty of justice. In order to obtain one you just shop at the judge without the other party getting a chance to defend themselves.
Judge Hensen is slowly building a reputation for issuing strange verdicts in intellectual property cases. In 2007 he/she/it concluded that legal downloading is illegal downloading (the case revolved around the question whether rights associations could collect money for illegal copies, which required a definition of illegal copies).
(Link: Trendbeheer. Photo: Nadia Plesner.)
