Intensely Dutch

First published on 28 Apr 2009. Updated on 5 Apr 2011.

As titles go, 'Intensely Dutch' may seem a bit of a stretch, as would 'Stunningly Belgian' or 'Canadian to the Max'. But to Art Gallery of NSW curator Hendrik Kolenberg, who was born in Rotterdam, the art of Holland warrants such a title because it speaks loudly and clearly of the national character of the Lowlands. "The Dutch are a funny lot," he says. "They're very much about individuality and embracing what you want to do without fear. The Dutch have had to contend with the sea - if they don't hold it back whole towns would disappear. That's where the Dutch sense of optimism comes from, I think."

Historically, The Netherlands has produced some of western painting's biggest drawcards, such as Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh. "Like everyone else I love those artists," Kolenberg says, "but I wanted to look at something that was just as important and made just as big an impact. And that was the postwar period."

Dutch artists after World War II were smarting from censorship imposed by the Nazis during the occupation and dismayed by the national mood of conservatism in the aftermath of the war. They formed avant-garde art movements such as the Dutch Experimental Group in 1948 and CoBrA in 1949.

An association of smaller European countries, CoBrA was an acronym for Copenhagen-Brussels-Amsterdam. Four of the CoBrA artists were Dutch - Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille and Lucebert - and the group's first exhibition took place at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. "It caused a riot almost from the day it opened," says Kolenberg, "partly because what they valued was the art of children, the mentally troubled, tribal art. They were challenging the public by daring to draw like a child."

A key image in Intensely Dutch is Karel Appel's 1951 painting 'Encounter'. Depicting a bird and another creature - CoBrA artists loved animals - it's a bright, playful composition in red, yellow, blue and black that could almost be the creation of a sophisticated kid. "Although they were confronting and upset people, the overriding feeling you get from the CoBrA works is joy," says Kolenberg.

While the CoBrA paintings are figurative, others in the exhibition are highly abstract. 'Daybreak' (1997) is a brilliant yellow square with a strip of white down the middle of it. It's by octogenarian Bram Bogart, who uses the thickest applications of paint of any artist in the world. ('Daybreak' weights over 200kg.) "He's a bit of a hero of mine," confesses Kolenberg. "He mixes his paint up in huge 15-litre bins using an electric drill."

Among the 15 artists in the show is a name usually associated with American abstract expressionism, Willem de Kooning. De Kooning left Holland for New York in 1926 but did not come to prominence until after the war. "In Holland, everyone sees him as Dutch," Kolenberg says, "and if you put him in with the other abstract painters of Holland, he fits." Dutch-born Australian artist Jan Riske is also included, along with Theo Kuijpers, who visited Australia in 1979 and 1985 and was inspired by John Olsen and Brett Whiteley.

While major Dutch institutions were only too happy to lend Kolenberg works by less celebrated names of Netherlandish art, all the artists were influenced to some degree by Vincent Van Gogh. "The phrase 'Intensely Dutch' fits Van Gogh like a glove," Kolenberg says. "He was the most intensely alive artist maybe of all time and terribly, terribly Dutch." Nick Dent