Nature as Artifice

Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Natur als Kunstgriff Dutch landscape in contemporary photography. assembles the works of fifteen artists, who show through the medium of photography new ways of viewing and presenting archetypal artificial landscapes. Their works focus in particular on the how people relate to the land and emphasise its artificial aspects. Although here and there subtle references are made to the history of Dutch landscape painting, the essence of the displayed works is to be found in their breaking with the old myth of Dutch landscape as some kind of agrarian idyll.

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Even today the term ›Dutch Landscape‹ conjures up a picture greatly influenced by painting. Ever since the Renaissance, the Dutch landscape has been depicted as an idyll composed of rivers, heathland, pastures and dunes, in which rural farming communities live in harmony with nature. A broad horizon, dramatic cloud formations and windmills in particular were typical characteristic features that kept this picture alive across the centuries, turning it into a myth of its own. The very word ›landscape‹ is derived from the Dutch, even though from the outset it was never intended to describe something natural: ›landscap‹ was a word used in official reports refering to a geographical unit farmed and managed by its owner.

The picture of the archetypal Dutch landscape has survived to this day, even if it has long since lost its original meaning. Just as in other countries, the Netherlands has experienced major changes brought about by industrialisation, economic reforms and globalisation, which have resulted in the landscape being seen through different eyes. Nature as Artifice unites, for the first time, the works of fifteen photographers and video artists who, over the past twenty years, have been working on new images that provide a stark contrast to the more traditional view. They have focused on man’s treatment of the landscape and emphasise its artistic aspects. Although there is the occasional allusion to the history of Dutch landscape painting, the essence of those works exhibited breaks with the old myth of Dutch landscape painting as a natural idyll.

The artists included in the exhibition show the Netherlands as an urban environment shaped and kept in check by man. Its characteristics include cityscapes, suburbs, industrial estates, rural farmland, as well as artificially landscaped parks and polders. At the same time their subject matter also includes those elements that have carved out these landscapes – subjects that, previously, were not considered worthy of being photographed, such as motorways, pylons, organised leisure activities, modern wind turbines, and greenhouses. Although their stance may be critical, it is not meant to be seen negatively. All artists demonstrate a keen interest in the structure of today’s landscape and the way it is changed, used and experienced by people. This has resulted in a wide-ranging repertoire of the most varied subjects and stylistic means used to present a contemporary view of the Dutch landscape as it really is.

Artists included in the exhibition: Hans Aarsman, Theo Baart, Wout Berger, Henze Boekhout, Marnix Goossens, Jannes Linders, Gert Jan Kocken, Cary Markerink, Hans van der Meer, Bas Princen, Gerco de Ruijter, Frank van der Salm and Edwin Zwakman, as well as the video artists Driessens/Verstappen and others.

Initiated by Maartje van den Heuvel, Amsterdam (ALIA), curated in Munich together with Inka Graeve Ingelmann (Pinakothek der Moderne). A cooperation with ALIA, the Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo (NL), and the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester (USA).

Image: Cary Markerink | A4 Schiphol, From the series “Highways in The Netherlands” by Theo Baart and Cary Markerink 1996

Press conference: 22.10.2008, 11.00
Opening: 22.10.2008, 19.00

Neue Pinakothek
Barer Strassee 29 - Munich

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IN ARCHIVIO [11]

Olaf Metzel
dal 7/10/2015 al 10/1/2016