Promised myself to blog a little about De Kleur van Water at the Zuiderzeemuseum,  it is on until October 28th. It has paintings and photographs taken from the collection of one of the great Maecenasses of modern times: the ING Bank. For art goes where the money is – banks, insurance companies, successful entrepreneurs …  I’ve been blogging some about the urge to collect art – it is an interesting virus.

Caroline Vos, curator of the ING Collection, chose sixty paintings and photographs from the ING Collection to show in the Indoor Museum, all dealing with water in one of it’s many guises. It also has six artists in place as Artist in Residence – checked them out, very object-based, not very interesting. They sort of neglect the historic setting, the beautiful old building they are allowed in and the collection that surrounds them. Waste of opportunity!

The exhibition itself is pretty good – it hangs well and it hangs together, too, even though the lighting is very poor in some places. Titles and texts are on small placards at floor level, which is an intelligent move. Looking at the work and reading about it become separate actions. Which made looking more enjoyable, also easier to see the exhibition as a whole this way.

Note: liked the photography much better than the paintings – find out why!

Anoek Steketee, frontstage # 10, 2004 – 2008

Ellen Kooi, Katwijk – Bomen 2005

Ruud van Empel World # 23 , 2006