Note for the Press
For information and pictures contact Mrs Lieke Fijen via 003120 5475038 or
PRESS RELEASE, Amstelveen July 8, 2010
topCobra Museum names a new directorate
Over the last few months, the Board of the Cobra Museum Foundation has undertaken the search for a new director, a position which has been vacant since November of last year following the death of the Museum's former director. The Board conducted an extensive internal and external selection process which has resulted in the creation of a joint directorship
As of August 1st, 2010 the leadership of the Cobra Museum will be assumed by two directors: Art historian Katja Weitering, who has been with the Museum since 2004, most recently as Senior Curator; and, Els Ottenhof who has been head of General Business and has served as Assistant Director since December 1st, 2008. Both Weitering and Ottenhof have served as interim directors during the past year.
The Board of the Museum Foundation considers that the internal appointments which resulted from a carefully-conducted appointment procedure guarantee the good fulfilment of the director's functions as well as providing continuity in Museum policy, as it has been shaped in recent years.
The decision to divide the directorate into two equal directorships underlines the equal weight that the Cobra Museum gives to artistic and business considerations, as well as the proportional importance of its achieving its primary objective. The Board is very satisfied with the fact that the recruitment search proved that the quality of the internal candidates compared well to that of external applicants, and that subsequent appointments could be confidently bestowed on internal candidates.
The decision regarding the appointments was made in conjunction with the announcement of a large Paul Klee exhibition, which will be shown at three international locations in Europe in 2011 and 2012. Together with the Paul Klee Zentrum in Bern and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, the new directorate has received an initial donation of € 75.000 from the Turing Foundation.
PRESS RELEASE, Amstelveen May 10, 2010
top
Masquerade
Cobra playfulness and the Mask
12.06 - 10.10 2010
From June 12th to October 10th, 2010 the Cobra Museum presents 'Masquerade: Cobra's Game with the Mask'. It promises to be an inspiring and multi-faceted summer exhibit about the relationship between Cobra and the mask: the mask as symbol for unrestrained and spontaneous art. A fun and challenging children's programme, 'The Cobra Expedition', has been developed to accompany the exhibition.
The exhibition will show works from Cobra alongside tribal masks and will include art by Ejler Bile, Eugène Brands, Corneille, Sonja Ferlov, Egill Jacobsen, Robert Jacobsen, Asger Jorn, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Anton Rooskens, Theo Wolvecamp, as well as work by the Cobra-associated artist Piet Ouborg. Special ethnographic items will also be exhibited: African masks from the Royal Danish Collection, from two authoritative museum collections and from the private collections of Brands, Corneille, Jan Nieuwenhuijs, Ouborg en Rooskens. This exhibition contains approximately 80 works, many of which are on loan from Danish and Dutch collectors.
With its combination of the works on view, fun children's activities and the exhibition's format, 'Masquerade' will be a very varied summer exhibition. The exhibition's theme is 'the mask'. It will feature Cobra artworks, primarily works dating from 1935 to the end of the 1950s, and will including paintings, works on paper, sculptures, and-- very uniquely– two of Eugène Brands' experimental masks from the late 1940's. One such experimental mask originates from the Cobra Museum's own collection. Another has only recently come to light and has been loaned especially for this show. The diversity of 'Masquerade' is in part due to its ethnographic content, including works from the private collection of the Royal Danish Family; African masks from the Royal Museum for Middle Africa Tervuren (Belgium); and special objects from the collection of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.
Cobra and the Mask
The exhibition focuses on the unique connection between Cobra and the mask. It will feature the origins and application of mask imagery within Modern Danish art in the 1930s and 1940s; the specific use of the mask as a symbol, motif and as a form of expression within the Dutch branch of Cobra including the Cobra-associated artist Piet Ouborg; and it highlights Cobra artist as collectors of ethnographic masks.
Danish artist Egill Jacobsen was the first, in the mid of the 1930s, to make a connection in his work with the mask. His screaming or laughing masks with their bright colours were a first emphatic response to the work of the much-admired masters, such as Klee, Miro and Ernst. During a trip to Paris in the winter of 1934 - 1935, Jacobsen became inspired by Picasso. Soon afterwards Jacobsen began making his barbaric masks; imaginative beings that sprang spontaneous to life. The mask painting led to the painting Obhobning (Accumulation); an abstract expressionist work that was a great source of inspiration for many of Jacobsen's peers within the Linien group. For Picasso and his contemporaries the mask was a way to deconstruct reality; the Tribal was confirmation of the Modern.
From the end of the 1930s, when Egill Jacobsen arrived at his spontaneous working method, his paintings began calling the old, barbarian world of Danish folklore back to life. He depicted the masks of carnival festivities and the dance around a colourfully-decorated Christmas tree-- an antiquated, but still-practised custom in Denmark, and one that is associated with a pagan ideas about living in harmony with, and mythological experiences of the natural environment. The mask served as a vehicle for all possible experiences and expressions, and as a symbol around which new mythologies could be created. Jacobsen's mask works made a significant impression on his fellow Danish (Linien) group members, including Asger Jorn, Ejler Bille, Sonja Ferlov, Carl-Henning Pedersen and Robert Jacobsen, each of whom went on to use and invest meaning in the mask in their own unique way.
Around 1948 Dutch experimental artists became acquainted with the Danish avant-garde. In it they found a confirmation of their own quest for a new, spontaneous kind of art. Anton Rooskens, Corneille, and Eugène Brands in particular focused their work on Africa and indigenous cultures. Anton Rooskens was a fore-runner, having already painted his ground-breaking painting Les Gens du Soleil in 1945. Karel Appel began making tribally-influenced work at the end of 1947 which was described as being "more powerful than African art or the work of Picasso." The use of the mask as symbol, motif and as a form of expression in the work of Dutch Cobra artists should be seen within the context of Cobra's characteristic style and fantastical figures.
The tribal, the prehistoric as well as folk art held less importance for the Belgian wing of the Cobra movement. However, the Danish and Dutch experimentalists saw the mask as a universal form of expression, as a vehicle for the unleashed imagination.
The play with the mask during ‘Expedition Cobra’
From time immemorial, the mask has spoken to our imaginations. By its very nature then, 'Masquerade' presents children with a fun challenge. All kinds of engaging exercises can be completed in the exhibition space using a map, and also via a Hyves page. For duration of the 'Masquerade' exhibition, there will be walk-in activities on Saturdays and artist-led workshops on Sundays.
Information about Expedition Cobra can be found at www.cobra-museum.nl and via www.hyves.cobra-museum.nl.
Supporter of ‘Expedition Cobra’
Persona
The mask holds deep meaning and is connected in many ways with human history and traditions. Our word 'person' is derived from the Latin 'persona' which means 'mask' and concerns the essence of an individual's personality. Masks have a role to play in many situations: at parties, in the theatre and as used in various cultures. Masks give protection; they are worn by superheroes. In Modern art, the mask has been taken up by Picasso and James Ensor.
An educational resource kit based on the exhibition is available for primary schools.
Masquerade: Cobra Playfulness and the Mask is supported by Dong Energy / Tennet / Energinet
PRESS RELEASE, Amstelveen May 19, 2010
topGuillaume Le Roy - Prints
12.06 - 10.10.2010
From June 12th the Cobra Museum for Modern Art will show a selection of work from the large and extensive oeuvre of the important Dutch graphic artist Guillaume Le Roy (Blaricum 1938 - Amsterdam 2008). Most of the approximately 40 works on view are woodcuts, including works from the 'Xanthias' series which was dedicated to Le Roy's writer-doctor. The artworks on display are from the years 1980-2007, and all are on loan from the artist's own collection. This exhibition is significant in that it features a number of rarely-exhibited painted studies that Le Roy made in preparation for printed works.
Guillaume Le Roy was a graphic artist for almost fifty years, and for most of that time he limited himself to the etching and the woodcut: "I etch if I want to make things that I can't make in woodcut, and vice versa. I have to be able to scratch and corrode. I cut into wood and I corrode zinc. A graphic artist works differently than a painter. The painter (and the lithographic printmaker) add something: the paint. The etcher and the woodcut printmaker take something away. To me, 'taking away' is more interesting than adding." Le Roy was a master of these techniques to such an extent that he sublimated everything else to it: he brought the art of the woodcut back to its original visual manifestation. Guillaume Le Roy found his vehicle for expressing perceptions in weathered planks and in the grain of wood.
His woodcuts recall the scratch in a plank and man's innate need to inscribe signs of life. Le Roy rejected technical advancements made in printing over the years, and retained only black, white, and the broken line as essential elements. His mistrust of colour grew: "Good black/white is the most colourful that there is, that is the paradox." His working method was intuitive, direct and expressive. The etchings employ a frayed line, whereas his woodcuts feature more hard-edged linear work. Le Roy exploits all the possibilities that the material and techniques offer in order to maximize the power of their expression.
Going back to the basics was the guiding principle in Le Roy's development as a graphic artist. His figuration is characterised by its consistent and increasing isolation within compact forms. These forms arise from deep within the image and are brought together by Le Roy with loose and linear patterning.
In 1962, Gauillaume Le Roy completed his education in the graphic arts at the Amsterdam School for Applied Arts (currently the Rietveld Academy). He left for France where he came into contact with Bram van Velde and Giacometti. He was impressed by their work. In the work of Bram van Velde he recognised that it was not reality, but bringing about the experience of reality which was the subject of the work. Giacometti emphasised that the area around the object must be drawn. These two revelations guided Le Roy's future development.
PRESS RELEASE, Amstelveen 22 April, 2009
topMogens Balle
A Great Unknown Dane
29.05 - 22.08 2010
While Danish artist Mogens Balle (Copenhagen 1921-1988) may be relatively unknown in the Netherlands, it is certainly not the case in Denmark and amongst Cobra circles. In recent years, international appreciation of his work has grown enormously. Now, in an extensive survey show, the Cobra Museum has brought the work of this major Danish Cobra artist to the Netherlands for the first time.
The more than 80 artworks that make up this fanciful survey exhibition are the product of an inspired and an experimental artistic life.
Most of the artworks in the exhibition are oil paintings, and a number of these are round canvases. But the exhibition also contains ceramics, bronze sculptures, gouaches, sketches, as well as work made with other Cobra artists. Many of the collaborative works that Mogens Balle made with Christian Dotremont, for example, are on view. The earliest work in the show is dated 1938 and the most recent work is from 1988. True to the Cobra tradition, this travelling exhibition is itself a collaboration between three Danish art museums including the Carl-Henning Pedersen and Else Alfelts Museum in Herning. Similarly, works on view in this exhibition are on loan from numerous Danish galleries and private collections, as well as other foreign collections.
Grete Balle and Annemarie Balle, the late artist's wife and daughter respectively, will be present at the opening on May 28th. Grete Balle will open the exhibition.
Mogens Balle and Cobra
Mogens Balle was a part of Cobra, one of few 20th century art movements that continues to enjoy the attention and appreciation of diverse audiences. The Movement's founding principles are as vital, popular and revolutionary now as they were then. Mogens Balle first became acquainted with Cobra through his renowned countryman and friend Asger Jorn. In 1949, Balle joined the group and for the rest of his life stayed true to the Cobra Group's ethos and ideals.
Mogens Balle participated in the Group's collaborative projects: a ceiling painting for a weekend cottage in Bregnerød (1949); an exhibition with Jorn, Egill Jacobsen, Karel Appel, and Corneille entitled ‘Cinq peintres de Cobra’ at Pierre Loeb's gallery in Paris (1951); and drawings contributed for the group's last published journal. But it was after Cobra that Balle's spontaneous and poetic painting style came to full fruition.
Dialogue with Cobra
Balle's extensive body of post-Cobra work is witness to the extent to which he benefited from his dialogue with the Group's traditions. His work bears some of the more typical and recognisable Cobra characteristics: the vibrant use of colour, materiality, and emphatic use of round-formed fantasy figures. But most of all, it was the intensive experimentation with colour by the other Cobra artists that made a deep impression on Balle. The source of his inspiration was a deep personal resonance with colour. He began by applying one colour to the canvas and then, in a sense, he listened to the truth of that colour while concentrating on the sensory and emotional experience that he wished to express. Other colours are mixed on the canvas and even the forms depicted are the result of a painting process that translates instinctive and lyrical feelings into colours and shapes. He strived to create work that was a product of experimentation and of spontaneous feeling.
The Experiment was Central
Throughout his life, Mogens Balle was committed to making spontaneous, immediate and abstract art. Although his earliest works are naturalistic, in terms of motif, perspective, or use of colour, his approach to representation is already noticeably unusual. Works made in the years leading up to the 1950's increasingly feature fantasy and abstraction. In the 1950's Mogens Balle develops the experimental aspects of his work further, particularly during his Cobra time and later in the Spiral group. All through his experiments and artistic development however, Balle's constant source of inspiration remains his immediate environment and nature.
Collaboration with Dotremont
It was above all with Cobra's literary leader, the writer-philospher Christian Dotremont, that Balle had the closest relationship. Dotremont was a great admirer of Balle's work and inspired him to new developments. Together they made many collaborative paintings and drawings, the so-called 'word-paintings', for which Dotremont wrote short texts containing word-play and metaphors that built on Balle's paintings or drawings.
The Poet
Mogens Balle approached painting in a poetic way; he used his pictures as a way of communicating his experiences and feelings. He was aware that he was often able to evoke the same feeling in the viewer as the one he had tried to capture on canvas. The titles that Balle gave his work also frequently offer us a clue. However, he did not see himself as a writer, once remarking that if he could explain his paintings, he ‘would have become a writer.’ Nevertheless, Mogens Balle was an occasional writer of poetry, and in a number of short poems he uses the written word to express his feelings and sentiments.
Publication
A full-colour exhibition catalogue is available with essays by: Hanne Lundgren Nielsen and Lars Olesen, Director and Curator of the Carl-Henning Pedersen and Else Alfelts Museum; art historian Annemarie Balle; and, Troels Andersen, former Director of the Silkeborg Art Museum.
Note for the Press:
The exhibition was previously on view in Denmark:
03.10.2009 - 03.01.2010 Carl-Henning Pedersen and Else Alfelts Museum in Herning
15.01.2010 - 21.03.2010 Skovhuset ved Søndersø in Værløse
27.03.2010 - 09.05.2010 Bispegården in Kalundborg
