Here you feel the world turning

Masterpiece by Leo Gestel

The exhibition features drawings, paintings, and sculptures by artists from various generations, including Dirk Filarski, David Kouwenaar, and Emo Verkerk. An important charcoal drawing and a watercolor study by Leo Gestel have been loaned from the National Art Collection. These loans are presented alongside Gestel’s masterpiece “Autumn,” which toured various museums in recent years. Now it returns to Bergen. The exhibition’s title is a beloved quote from Gestel.

Bergen Through the Eyes of the Painter

Around the 1920s, Gestel lived in Bergen, where he befriended Piet Boendermaker, a patron of the Bergen School. During that time, Bergen grew from a breeding ground for Dutch avant-garde art into an artists’ colony, which it remains to this day. The village and the surrounding landscape remain a favorite subject for many artists; the seventeenth-century country estate, the Oude Hof, has been frequently depicted over the past century. By Gestel, by Matthieu Wiegman (1920) and Jaap Min (1980). Here, you feel the world turning, which also demonstrates the extent to which the artists stand on each other’s shoulders.

Surprising Connections

The loan aligns with the current development of collaboration within the museum world and the focus on hidden treasures in storage. The core of the Kranenburgh collection is formed by works from the Boendermaker collection, including the monumental portrait of Charley Toorop’s sister Boendermaker. Toorop herself, the grande dame of the Bergen artists’ colony, is honored in a portrait by Matthieu Wiegman. The works by David Kouwenaar (on loan from the RCE) about music connect with Emo Verkerk’s tribute to musician Charley Parker. Connections between artworks and artists are made visible throughout the exhibition, sometimes from an art historical perspective, sometimes associatively, by theme and artist.