Kamagurka, The Man with the Clothes Inside, 2011. photo: ben deiman
Now is a great time to visit the Netherlands for its tulips, but four new exhibits that have just opened at the Dutch National Glass Museum in Leerdam promise to pique the interest of glass enthusiasts as well. The museum is celebrating its 95th birthday with the opening of four new exhibits and a program of glassblowing workshops, gallery tours, and gallery talks by artists and museum administrators.
The five greenhouses in the museum’s garden will be the site of an exhibit entitled “The Transparent Body.” The participants were asked to complete pieces that revolve around the question of glass’ applicability to the human body. Artists, not all of whom are traditionally glass artists, worked with glass to answer this question. Belgian cartoonist Kamagurka, for example, worked with Glasmuseum blowers to create eight works into which he distributed the ashes of drawings he made. These will sit alongside new pieces by British jewelry designer Naomi Filmer, Dutch ceramic artist Simone van Bakel, Dutch fashion designers Gerrit & Natasja, and Dutch designer Eibert Draisma.
Kamagurka at Work on Urn, 2011
Dutch artist Berend Strik began asking the same questions as those included in, “The Transparent Body” exhibit in a concurrent exhibition. His responses to those questions are shown in a solo exhibit titled, “No Straight Lines,” which is on display in the museum’s top floor.
Berend Strik, No Straight Lines, 2011
In addition to those two exhibits of new pieces, two retrospectives are opening in the Glasmuseum. A large retrospective renowned Dutch glass artist Andres Dirk Copier takes up one of the museum’s floors. The exhibit features nearly 2000 pieces and contains Copier’s most famous pieces while highlighting the Dutch master’s versatility as well as his influences. The second retrospective is a showcase for the museum’s small, but ever-expanding, collection of displaced monumental glass art as the glass architectural details of buildings being demolished find a permanent home on the museum’s grounds.
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