Special exhibition in Academia Building
Academia Building was designed in the 1970s for the Tilburg Academy for Visual Arts Education. Three Academy alumni are now showing a selection of their paintings and drawings there.
In 1972, the Academy for Visual Arts Education on Cobbenhagenlaan, built after a design by architect Hugh Maaskant (1907-1977), opened its doors. Today, the building is used by Tilburg University, but from April 20 until June 23, it is home to work created by three of the Academy’s alumni. Hanneke Naterop, Peter Nuijten, and Herman Kuypers studied at the Academy between 1985 and 1990 and now exhibit a selection of their paintings and drawings there.
The work of the three artists, who studied at the Academy in the previous century, belongs to a realistic, figurative tradition. Back in the day, their art went against the current and did not meet with much approval from teachers. All three, however, have remained true to their convictions and continue to be inspired, like Hanneke Naterop, by something as real and familiar as the shimmer of light in the lens of a pair of glasses. To Peter Nuijten, the techniques and subjects of 17th-century masters like Johannes Vermeer and Willem Heda are an inexhaustible source of inspiration. He places his work in the tradition of the fijnschilders (fine painters), whose art requires a high degree of discipline and technical skill. Herman Kuijpers has dedicated his entire oeuvre to one single subject: chairs. He renders them, both in paintings and drawings, from a variety of perspectives, and sometimes they appear stacked, creating a graphic image in which the chair only manifests itself as such at second glance.
Everyday scenes are Hanneke Naterop’s subject, too, like horses, cows in the mud, or her father in the garden. “But also the many fairy tales I read when I was young and whose images are etched in my visual memory. There’s control, but there’s also coincidence.”
The exhibition is on the upper story of Academia Building on Cobbenhagenlaan and runs from April 20 until June 23, on working days between 08:00 and 18:00 hrs. For more information, please send an email to academischerfgoed@tilburguniversity.edu or visit the artists’ websites: www.hannekenaterop.com, www.hermankuypers.nl, www.peternuijten.com.