EVERYDAY, SOMEDAY AND OTHER STORIES
COLLECTION 1950 – 1980
Exhibition — Ongoing
The Stedelijk’s three-part collection presentation has been redesigned with a special focus on theme. Everyday, Someday and Other Stories, traces the evolution of art and design from the 1950s to the 1980s. Artists and designers show it was an era of new opportunities and progress, of mass culture, pop culture and consumption, and of critiquing the established order. Featuring well-known and less familiar works from the collection, the presentation tells different stories from diverse perspectives, and shines a new light on the Stedelijk collection.
The collection of 1980 – Now is on view in Tomorrow is a Different Day. The collection until 1950 is Yesterday Today.
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Installation view Everyday, Someday and Other Stories. Collection 1950 – 1980. Photo: Peter Tijhuis -
Günter Beltzig, Floris, 1967 – 68, chair of polyester, fiberglass, alkyd paint -
Installation view Everyday, Someday and Other Stories. Collection 1950 – 1980. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
Everyday
'Everyday’ shows how art gradually draws closer to everyday life as artists begin to use mundane materials, actions and events. Bruce Nauman turns simple actions into video work and stanley brouwn elevates something as simple as asking for directions to art. Others, like Tetsumi Kudo, use ordinary objects. Artists also witness the impact of mass media on perception and stereotyping, apparent in works by Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Bloom, and Hans Eijkelboom.
SOMEDAY
‘Someday’ captures the idealism of those decades: in Homo Ludens, Constant explores play as a central element in culture and society, Ben d’Armagnac founds a commune that inspires Louwrien Wijers’s poetic word sculptures. Space travel is hugely influential; astronaut William Anders photographed the Earth, creating an emblem of our planet’s vulnerability, and gave flight to a host of Space Age-inspired designs conceived by such creative minds as Václav Cigler, JVC, Wim Crouwel and Peter Ghyczy.
Pursuing ideals also meant lashing out at established norms, as shown by the immense wall displaying political protest posters.
William Irwin’s photos document Civil Rights marches and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. Corita Kent, Catholic nun and pop art artist, addresses the same themes in her easy-to-distribute silkscreen prints. Günter Beltzig designs the Floris, a chair to take to sit-in demonstrations. Photos by Maurice Boyer and Pieter Boersma chronicle the squatters’ riots in Amsterdam, while Cor Jaring captures John Lennon and Yoko Ono in the Amsterdam Hilton, promoting world peace in their protest bed-in. The Wild Plakken buttons and Provo magazines epitomise this protest generation’s democratic activism.
Our entire curatorial team is working hard to broaden the collection and explore it from a fresh, thematic approach. Guiding this process is the awareness that art history is ultimately a collection of many different histories and narratives. Artworks discovered in the depot and recent work we were able to acquire in this context, unlock new vantage points. And, just as history is in perpetual motion, our collection presentation will remain in flux, even when part three of our permanent display opens after the summer.
One of the galleries brings together works of Niki de Saint Phalle, Elaine Sturtevant, and Corita Kent. Coming from a female perspective, these women gave new impetus to the visual arts of their time. Stylistically, their work is related to pop art. In her fierce and colorful figures, Niki de Saint Phalle celebrated typically feminine features by greatly exaggerating them. Sturtevant copied works by famous male contemporaries, undermining notions about originality and authenticity. Kent conveyed her activism through screen prints, a medium considered inferior to traditional disciplines like painting and sculpture.
OTHER STORIES
Displaying familiar artworks in an unfamiliar context, ‘Other Stories’ tells narratives that have yet to be explored.
The display also sheds new light on ‘minimal gestures’. Work by Carl Andre, Robert Ryman, Maria van Elk, and Jo Baer is paired with that of artist Chavalit Soemprungsuk from Thailand, whose paintings are meticulous explorations of minimalist art.
Other stories enter the arts through the diaspora, with Surinamese artists such as Ron Flu, Armand Baag, Erwin de Vries, Ed Hart, Soeki Irodikromo and Quintus Jan Telting, and voices from the Jewish diaspora with the work of Marie-Louise von Motesiczky.
Travel helped to change the course of art, introducing artists to new materials, techniques and stories. During her travels, Batia Suter collects books, integrating them intuitively into a vast installation 12.5 meters long.
Ettore Sottsass’ visits to India shape his designs. Japan influences the west and vice versa, visible in the work of the French Charlotte Perriand.
ACQUISITIONS
The installation includes recent acquisitions of art by Armand Baag, Corita Kent, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, Batia Suter, and Quintus Jan Telting, which broaden the Stedelijk’s collection.
Everyday, Someday and Other Stories shows work by
William Anders, Carl Andre, Archizoom Associati, Ben d’Armagnac, Armand Baag, Jo Baer, Klaus Barisch, Günter Beltzig, Barbara Bloom, Alighiero Boetti, Pieter Boersma, Theo van den Boogaard, Julia Born & Alexandra Bachzetsis, Maurice Boyer, Steward Brand, stanley brouwn, Enrico Castellani, Miguel-Ángel Cárdenas, Ulises Carrión, Chimurenga, Václav Cigler, Constant, Wim Crouwel, Jan Dibbets, Charles & Ray Eames, Benni Efrat, Hans Eijkelboom, Maria van Elk, Experimental Jetset, Simone Forti, Ron Flu, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Hamish Fulton, Peter Ghyczy, Pieter H. Goede, Ed Hart, Marion Herbst, Nan Hoover, Anneke Huig, Soeki Irodikromo, William Irwin, Cor Jaring, Joan Jonas, Jacqueline de Jong, JVC, Corita Kent, Yves Klein, Hans Koetsier, Willem de Kooning, Huub & Adelheid Kortekaas, Tetsumi Kudo, Yayoi Kusama, Richard Long, Nalini Malani, Piero Manzoni, Enzo Mari, Agnes Martin, Roberto Matta, Gordon Matta-Clark, Mario Merz, Sam Middleton, Ulf Moritz, Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, Bruce Nauman, Barnett Newman, Isamu Noguchi, Kenneth Noland, Verner Panton, Umberto Peña, Charlotte Perriand, Plasteco Milano, Martial Raysse, Daniel Reeves, Terry Riley, Martha Rosler, Robert Ryman, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jan Schoonhoven, Seemon & Marijke, Cindy Sherman, Chavalit Soemprungsuk, Ettore Sottsass, Daniel Spoerri, Frank Stella, Elaine Sturtevant, Batia Suter, Ikko Tanaka, Lenore Tawney, Quintus Jan Telting, Jean Tinguely, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Erwin de Vries, Andy Warhol, Louwrien Wijers, Jos Wong, Ryuichi Yamashiro, Sori Yanagi, Kamekura Yusaku.
Audio Tour
LOOKING THROUGH THE EYES OF…
In the audio tour accompanying this part of the new collection presentation, artists, designers or curators who share their personal stories of the works on view in each room. They tell you why they created the piece, what it means to them and what they are looking for in their work. The curators talk about what makes a work stand out, and how each piece fits into this new presentation concept. Listen to the audio tour online or grab a free audio guide when you visit the museum.
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