Exhibition: 'herman de vries 80,
nul = zero & contemporaries'

Period: September 9 - October 22

herman de vries has been crucial to the direction our gallery program turned into throughout the years.  Right from the start, he has inspired us to merge art and life to the best we could.  Himself, he is the example of this aim realized.

Since we showed herman's recent work last year, we decided to honor the fact that he turned 80 in July, by showing works from the beginning of his career in relation to his contemporaries.  

At the time, the young 'after WW2' generation wanted to mark a new era by starting from scratch, i.e. zero ('nul' in Dutch language).  It became a large movement in Europe and even Japan, with a main group in Germany, which was so relevant in their need to turn away from the past!

'zero' refrained from the artist being the center point of attention by using every day materials, as well as a repetition of elements, while avoiding 'composition'. Important distinction also was that 'painting' was replaced by (elevated) elements, resulting in 'a play with light'.  

There were two directions those days, the intuitive and the calculated order. Both aspects are represented in our exhibition with works from the 60s and 70s.