Art of Living

The Art of Living

In early November 2019, Aat Veldhoen (1934–2018) would have turned 85. Until the end of his life, he worked energetically on his versatile oeuvre—etchings, drawings, paintings, Polaroids, and sculptures—in his full studio on the Wittenburgergracht in Amsterdam. Starting December 1st, Museum Kranenburgh, in collaboration with the Dutch National Portrait Gallery and art historian/photographer Venus Veldhoen, will present an extensive selection of his work under the title “The Art of Living,” carefully curated by photographer and guest curator Koos Breukel in collaboration with Venus Veldhoen.

The Essence of Existence: Love, Sex, Birth, Illness, Decline, and Death

The heart of the exhibition is a wide selection of Veldhoen’s best Polaroids from the period circa 1966–1975. These come from the collection of the Rijksmuseum, which acquired this work shortly before his death. A selection from the many etchings and etching plates Aat Veldhoen has created since the 1960s reveals that they have lost none of their expressive power. However different their technique and perception—an etching can seem dated at a glance, while a Polaroid has seemed contemporary for decades—both depict the cycle of life.
Like Veldhoen’s etching plates, his Polaroids were studies and means for him to highlight the fleeting nature of life. Over a period of twenty years, he created more than three thousand of them. They are visual diary fragments in which we see his loved ones, his children, and himself. Some Polaroids have undergone changes through unintended chemical processes, the ravages of time, and sometimes his interventions, affecting the images, much like a patina does to a painting. This makes them artifacts of an artist’s life, in which we see the essence of being and our existence: from love, conception, and birth to illness, decay, and impending death.

Life is art

Aat Veldhoen’s exceptional, intimate study of his own life and that of those around him is evident in the countless portraits in which he and his close friends have been depicted. The Polaroids, photographed etching plates, etchings, and paintings forge remarkable connections with the work of artists who crossed his path, such as Pieter Boersma (Boersma documented the lives of Veldhoen and Kabul for a period, mother of three of his daughters), his daughter Venus Veldhoen, and his partner Hedy d’Ancona. Work by photographers Koos Breukel and Hans de Kort, among others, is also on display. His son Martijn Veldhoen’s 2014 film, “Time and Place, a talk with my Mom,” is also shown, and a photo of a tattoo by his son, Tycho Veldhoen, is also on display.

The result is an intimate look at human existence, intimately related to Veldhoen. In the exhibition, life and work are inextricably linked, just as in Veldhoen’s lifestyle.