The art of looking

The exhibition The Love of Art Comes First features more than 100 artworks from the collection of the Art & Project gallery (Amsterdam 1968-1989, Slootdorp 1990-1998). This was one of the leading galleries for contemporary art in the Netherlands and far beyond. Its founders Geert van Beijeren and Adriaan van Ravesteijn were a hub in the web of artists, museums and collectors. In their gallery, it was all about the interplay between the artwork, the person looking at it and the space in which the art is presented.

The exhibition includes works by Jan Dibbets, Ger van Elk, Gilbert & George, Willy Ørskov, Barry Flanagan, Richard Long and Nicholas Pope, among others. But also special archive material, including photographs, correspondence with artists, notes and objects. The pieces are from the RKD-Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague, where the Art & Project archive is housed. Thus, you get a glimpse into the lives of gallery owners and artists.

Do you want a different view of an artwork in the exhibition? Or would you like to understand art better? Then take one of our Eye Openers for more information and a challenging question. Or strike up a conversation with one of our exhibition guides. They will ask you a thought-provoking question, tell you more about the artwork and give you a different perspective.

Unique for Art & Project was the bulletin. At first these were only used to announce exhibitions, but soon artists began using the bulletin to spread their ideas. Some bulletins themselves became a work of art or a complete exhibition.

You can get to work yourself at the special workstations. For example, create your own bulletin at the bulletin bar! Here you can share a tip, a poem, a story or something you saw in the exhibition. Send the bulletin to yourself or surprise someone else with it.

Fortunately, Art & Project's gallery owners preserved a lot, from a glass used by artist Bas Jan Ader to the notebook with the first mention of the name Art & Project. Would you like to help us create a beautiful archive around this exhibition too? Then leave an object in the archive box in the exhibition. For example, a passport photo from your wallet, a receipt from your pocket or something you made yourself.

Art & Project quickly developed into one of the pioneering galleries of conceptual art in the Netherlands and Europe: art in which the concept and idea are central and in which any object can be art. Adriaan van Ravesteijn and Geert van Beijeren not only sold art in their gallery, but also assembled a large art collection themselves, with over 850 objects. A large part of the collection was donated to the Kröller-Müller Museum in 2013.

The exhibition is accompanied by the voluminous publication Art & Project: A History. This examines the exhibitions, the bulletins, the gallery’s network and its influence in the (inter)national art world from various perspectives. The book is the result of extensive research and contains a great deal of previously unpublished (visual) material. Order the book in the webshop