HUGO KAAGMAN STENCIL KING
Westertoren 1993
Mural of a Delftware plate on the wall of a house opposite the Westertower in Amsterdam
Exposition in West-Indisch Huis,
Amsterdam; Grey Art Gallery, New
York; Cultural Center, Chicago;
Malnychenko Gallery, Winnipeg, 1993.
NetherArt A Dutch Response to the Nineties
New Yorker Galleries Downtown, 5 may 1993
"NETHER ART"
In the past few decades, no capitalistic nation has seemed to value its artists more than the Dutch, who have paid them simply to be artists. As it turns out,
the system hasn't produced much good art, and has now been partially dismantled. This show, which introduces a new generation of Dutch artists, makes it
clear that today Holland is a lively, spirited scene. Unfortunately, the art still isn't very good. These artists are very conscious of their formidable art-
historical and craft traditions- there are selfportraits after rembrandt and frequent references to Vermeer and de hooch- and seem oppressesd by them. The
best works are the least ambitious ones. The paintings by the former graffitist Hugo Kaagman, done in the blue-and-white style of delftware, are particularly
good. In form, he surrenders to history completely, but his imagery (hypermodernic needles, buases, planes and modern buildings) is unmistakably
contemporary. Through May 15. (Greyart gallery, New York University, 33 Washington Pl.)
Winnipeg Free Press, saturday, November 1993
Folksy romanticism subverted
Dutch artists take witty look at their land
THIS SHOW of 11 artists from the Netherlands, presented at the Melnychenko Gallery as part of the Dutch Canadian
Centenary celebrations, is clever and funny, although ultimately a bit cool.
The keynote is set by the witty work of. Hugo Kaagman, who started as a graffiti artist but has since moved indoors. He plays
around. with the motif of "Delftware," that characteristically Dutch blue-and-white tile. Using repeating square canvases and
stencilled decorative motifs, he calls up a solid bourgeois past, with references to a nostalgic "picture:-postcard" vision of
Holland -gabled houses, windmills, skaters, canals. He subverts this folksy romanticism with short shocks of contemporary
complexities - faceless tower blocks, industrial waste, pornography, a travelling methadone treatment bus (Methadone
Bus,1991).
Art Review Netherart By Alison Gillmor Free Press Correspondent
