ART CITIES:Amsterdam- Sea Views
The Netherlands and the sea is a popular theme in the Rijksmuseum. In the 17th Century, Willem van de Velde drew the coastline of Kijkduin and Terheijden in huge and meticulous ink drawings. In the late 19th Century, Jan Toorop was completely entranced by the undulating movement of the sea at the coast of Katwijk. For the first time photographic seascapes are added to the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Rijksmuseum Archive
Rijksmuseum began collecting photography in 1994 and around 10 years ago focused on expanding its holdings beyond the 19th Century. Recently the Museum received a generous donation of 35 photographic seascapes from a Private Collector, this collection of photos has been assembled over a period of 10 years. This genre is completely new to the Rijksmuseum’s extensive photo Collection. The exhibition “Sea Views” in the Philips Wing, presents a selection of 13 Photos among them by Ray Metzker, Viviane Sassen, Chris Hooper, Franco Fontana, Jo Ractliffe, Chris McCaw and Simon van Til. Each photo is an intensive exercise, with the playful use of air, light and tide. The photos reveal the influence of the photographer and the richness of photographic print. The resulting works are very diverse. In some works the sea is black, in others azure. Some of the works are monumental, others small and intimate. In addition, an accompanying film by Jochem van Laarhoven will be screened. Ray K. Metzker quietly made extraordinary and influential photographs over the course of a 5 decade career. Today, he is recognized as one of the great masters of American photography, a virtuoso who pursued his chosen medium passionately throughout the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st. He was committed to discovering the potential of black and white photography during the shooting and the printing, and has shown consummate skill in each stage of the photographic process. Ray Metzker’s unique and continually evolving mastery of light, shadow and line transform the ordinary in the realm of pure visual delight. Franco Fontana since the ‘60s, he has been one of the great masters of colour photography. He began his aesthetic investigation in 1961, in 1963, he exhibited at the Third International Biennal of Colour in Wien. In his photographs Fontana isolates essential elements of abstraction from a sequence of forms, shapes and colours: for his pictorial sensibility he has been measured up to eminent painters such as Tobey, Rothko and Poliakoff. Using homemade large format cameras, Chris McCaw exposes silver gelatin paper for extended periods of time, burning through the paper and inverting the image. McCaw was making long exposures of the night sky during a camping trip when he forgot to cap his camera lens before going to sleep. When he woke up, he discovered that the sun had burned a hole through his negative. After processing the film, he found that it had solarized, or reversed in tone. What started as an accident McCaw now does intentionally for his “Sunburn” series of photographs.
Info: Rijksmuseum, Museumstraat 1, Amsterdam, Duration: 17/6-17/9/17, Days & Hours: Daily 9:00-17:00, www.rijksmuseum.nl
