September 11, 2012

Exhibition Pop Art in Europe

Filed under: Art,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 7:40 pm

Until January 2013 Museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen will hold a unique exhibition entitled ‘Pop Art in Europa’ featuring European Pop Art, a style usually associated with the United States and the likes of Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein. More than 100 works of European Pop Art from the Netherlands, the UK, France, German, Spain, Portugal and Belgium can be admired, something that has never been shown this way before, with many works that have never been on display in the Netherlands.

Find out more about Hamilton, Arman, Richter, Polke, Deschamps and many other who were inspired by film stars, politics and daily life, and arguably had more in-depth meaning than their American counterparts. The Dutch end is being held up by such artists as Wim T. Schippers, Woody van Amen and Rik van Bentum.

And while you’re there, have a good look at the building of the Museum Het Valkhof, which got a major face lift some years ago. The residents of Nijmegen either love or hate, although when I lived there it was mostly bewilderment. It’s a big glass thing that shines bright when there’s sun, located right next to a very big park, the Valkhof Park which boats large Roman ruins.

(Photo of Wim T. Schippers’ floating rock Het Is Me Wat by Wikipedia user Stamper, some rights reserved. Link: Bright.)

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April 18, 2009

Colourful and perhaps slightly disturbing comic book covers

Filed under: Comics by Branko Collin @ 10:25 am

An ad on the back of the latest Zone 5300 brought together these colourful and perhaps slightly disturbing comic book covers by Dutch and Flemish artists (click for a larger version):

zone-5300-ads-thumb

From left to right:

  • I Heart Paris by Maarten vande Wiele and Erika Raven;
  • De Maagd en de Neger 2 (The Virgin and the Negro, part 2) by Judith Vanistendael;
  • Rood Gras – Ik ben een bos en er lopen mensen door mij by Rob van Barneveld (Red Grass – I Am a Forest and People are Walking Through Me);
  • Als Vader Abraham van huis is (When Vader Abraham is Away from Home) by Argibald; and
  • Zachte Dwang (Gentle Coercion) by Kim Duchateau.

They almost make me want to not buy the books, so that I can fantasize about what is in them.

Between the covers of issue 85 of Zone 5300 are stories by Tanxxx and by Wittek & Sven Tauke, excerpts from Typex’ sketch book, a two-pager by Zone editor Sandra de Haan, and also a two-pager by Maaike Hartjes, in which the author goes introspective, but in a funny way.

Zone 5300 also points out that the ultra-Dutch comic Sjef van Oekel is being rereleased in French (where the title character is called Leon-La-Terreur), but not in Dutch. “What’s up with that?” the mag demands to know of the artist, Theo van den Boogaard. “The co-operation between publishers De Bezige Bij and Oog & Blik is still young, but there is a good chance they will publish the Dutch reprint. Wim [Wim T. Schippers] and I always wanted to be published by De Bezige Bij, so this development makes us very happy.”

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