NWCoT
Travelling exhibition
Dutch solidity with the sensitivity of the fine painters.
JOINE exhibition 'No Windmills, Cheese or Tulips'
Project by Maarten Baptist and Margo Konings for the Dutch government
Image by Maurice Scheltens and Thomas Dahm
The light softly illuminates the plates, the lobster claws that have been fashioned into jewellery, the rough skin of the ceramic vases and the even white sheen of the tables. Light and dark interact on the embossing on the traditional stone jenever bottle. A bonbonnière of polished white dishes casts a shadow on the table's surface. An aluminium clock spins to the rhythm of the day. The tiny flames of a candlestick flicker quietly in the breeze - so softly that the dandelion seed heads, in their bulb vases, remain untouched by it. A thickly woven plaid hangs as a foil from the edge of the table. The subdued bluish gray has been folded upwards so that the fluorescent yellow and the fiery red hidden underneath is reflected by the table as no more than a warm glow. Coloured strips of fabric guide the viewer's eye downwards to the chair with its Swiss cheese pattern. To the left, an elephant lies as a forgotten child's toy under the table. Next to it, a chair has been wrapped tightly, almost erotically, in an elastic synthetic material. To the right, a liver-coloured rocking chair has just come to a standstill. The gray leather behaves, in contrast to the stiff leather of the adjacent stool, as the fabric of a quilt. A jewelled handbag (lies on the armrest, as if left there by accident. The gold rings and precious stones sparkle, their lustre reflected in the wineglasses on the table. A little stuffed bird, mounted on a glass branch - like Carel Fabritius' Goldfinch - oversees the composition.
'No Windmills, Cheese or Tulips' is not a painting. It does, however, have a lot in common with the still life paintings of the Dutch Golden Age. The Old Masters also painted beautiful dinnerware, glass and porcelain - filled or not with wine or tasty fruit. These still life paintings, furnished with Persian carpets and table linen, gleaming candlesticks, fowl and all sorts of shellfish, served as more than the memory of a pleasant dinner. The artists could choose the objects and materials to paint as they pleased, and used them as a demonstration of their skill. In this, the painters transcended merely fixing a banquet in one's memory and were able to showcase their talents time and again. The play of light on coloured glass or luminescent materials, the reflection of candlelight on an earthenware stone bottle, the silky glow of a bunch of grapes or the difference in texture between the woven fabric and the carpets; these were the actual subjects of this specialist art form. The painters showed only the beauty of the visible world.
NWCoT wants to establish a link between these Old Masters of the Golden Age and an art form in which the Netherlands at this point in time excels at the international level: design. The references to seventeenth-century genre painters - especially the specialists in still-life painting - serve to establish contemporary design within a historic and cultural context. Even if at first glance these art forms appear to be completely different, NWCoT illustrates mainly their similarities. This is based not only on the Dutch solidity with which the 'Lost & Found' stool was designed or the craftsmanship of the 'Quilt Chair' or the downy-soft 'Colour Plaid'. With respect to their content, there is a relationship between these and the work of the Old Masters.
The way light is refracted in water - a popular subject for fine painters - has literally become the design for the 'Waater' bottle. The ripples in the glass, just below the bottle's neck, look like the ripples that would appear if you let a drop of water fall into the bottle. Just as the seventeenth-century painters warn the viewer on the fleeting transience of the vanities and earthly riches, the 'Love Bag' filled with gold rings will similarly bring about a discussion on the purpose of jewellery. On the old paintings, candlesticks, burning candles and hourglasses all served to illustrate the concept of time. Combined with richly decorated still-lifes, these moralist painters reminded us of our mortality, from which no earthly riches can offer protection. 'Flames', a candlestick, regards this tradition with a bit of humour. At first glance, its clear design gives an impression of luxury, although it has been fashioned of only the very simplest of materials. 'About Time' is a clock that slows down time by leaving out unnecessary details - such as minutes - and by putting the hectic moments of everyday life into proper perspective through the use of poetic texts such as: “…but if you want to, it can be nine, and then it also will become ten…”.
Just as a lot of attention was paid by the Old Masters to texture, the 'Kokon Stubborn' chair, the 'Low Res Elephant' lamp/stool and the 'Low Res Jenever Kruik' stone bottle all stimulate the tactile senses in their own way. And all of these diverse materials were treated whimsically. The 'Unlimited' vases appear to be made of concrete, but actually encompass a series of unique ceramic objects. The rhythmic play of lines in the little 'Botanical Ceramics' vase has a quality reminiscent of wafer-thin bone china. The decision to use traditionally blown glass in 'Louise', a series of wineglasses on a trident base, is remarkable in this context. Blown glass looks a lot less flat than standard glass and it has a beautiful lustrous quality.
There is no food on this banquet. The lobster claws in the jewellery's design, the steel bird on the bonbonnière and the little stuffed bird of 'Fake IV' are all contemporary references to the painting of dead game. And, in the case of the latter, even refers to the use of so-called 'trompe l'oeils', the art of tricking the eye favoured by some of these fine painters. The painstakingly tender method with which dandelion seed heads were attached to the little 'Dandelight' lamp calls to mind the painter's patience in bringing to life similar plants when putting paint to canvas.
NWCoT illustrates the relationship with the Old Dutch tradition without straying into clichés like traditional blue Delftware or flirting with kitsch. And what about the Nokia 6500 Classic by GRO Design? This proves that the Dutch are not only capable of creating top-quality design, but are also perfectly able to develop more commercially viable high-tech products.
© Rebecca Nelemans
Art historian
www.nwcot.com
Back to top
