Studio Verwey

Studio Verwey refers to the Haarlem artist Kees Verwey (1900-1995), who made his name as a painter, watercolorist and draughtsman. His studio in Haarlem was an important source of inspiration for him, with his monumental studio pieces becoming a high point in his oeuvre. Photographs of Verwey in his studio, seated behind his painter’s easel, showcase the image of the archetypical artist.

The exhibition Studio Verwey researches the role of the studio for contemporary artists. Whilst Verwey worked and lived mostly within the four walls of his studio, the project posed the question “What is the relationship between young artists and their working spaces?”. Five artists who received a Fellowship from the Kees Verwey Foundation and were offered a studio at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam show their recent work: Ištvan Išt Huzjan, Tomoko Kawachi, Tala Madani, Derk Thijs and Sarah Verbeek.

The exhibition is composed of six rooms, creating six different conditions in which the works of art are displayed. The conditions showcase a gradient from an open space to a completely closed space: a ‘white cube’, with several stages of translucency in between. The six conditions refer to the different stages in the lifespan of an artwork: from the creation in the studio, the exhibition in a museum, and finally storage in a depot.

The exhibition questions whether a museum can be, in fact, a studio or whether it is actually a depot.