Collection De Heus-Zomer - Chinese Art at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Focus Beijing

Collection De Heus-Zomer

14 June - 21 September 2014

This summer Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is showing a selection from thecollection of Chinese contemporary art amassed by Henk de Heus and his wifeVictoria de Heus-Zomer. The couple have been travelling to China regularly since thelate nineteen-nineties, buying work by leading artists. This important privatecollection of contemporary Chinese art has never been exhibited in context before.

Henk de Heus and Victoria de Heus-Zomer’s collection of Chinese art is unique in theNetherlands. Since their first visit to China in 1998 they have been collecting contemporaryChinese art. Underpinning this extraordinary collection is the relationship of trust that thecouple has built up with various artists over the years. In dialogue with the collectors, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has selected some twenty artists who represent twogenerations, and live and work in Beijing. The museum is showing a selection of paintings, photographs and sculptures. The exhibition is the grand finale crowning a series of threeexhibitions of works from the De Heus-Zomer Collection.

Current Art from Beijing

‘Focus on Beijing: Collection De Heus-Zomer’ is an exhibition spotlighting a number ofprominent artists from Beijing who represent two generations. The first grew up in thenineteen-fifties and sixties. Their works reflects strong political engagement, with allusions toChina’s traumatic history and the social and cultural revolution she has undergone in recentdecades. Artists like Zhang Dali (Harbin, 1963), Zhang Xiaogang (Kunming, 1958), Hai Bo(Changchun,1962) and Ai Weiwei (Beijing, 1957) represent this generation. The secondgeneration of artists grew up in the nineteen-seventies and eighties, the period of theChinese open-door policy. Artists like Qiu Xiaofei (Hoerbin, 1977), Wang Guangle (Fujian,1976) and Liang Yuanwei (Xi’an, 1977) were born at a time when Chinese society wasstarting to turn more towards the West, a period of strong growth when the effect of marketforces was becoming evident. Individuality and intuition are key to their work as artists. They know all about trends in the global art world-much more than that art world knows aboutdevelopments in contemporary Chinese art.

The De Heus-Zomer Collection

Henk and Victoria de Heus-Zomer have been collecting art since the late nineteen-eighties. When they began, they were looking for things to fill the walls in their house in Barneveld. Over the years the collection grew to become a leading private collection, with numerous masterpieces by artists like Marlene Dumas, René Daniëls, JCJ Vander Heijden, Neo Rauch, Anselm Kiefer and Thomas Struth. Since 2010 they have created three exhibitions of workfrom the collection: in Singer Laren and last year in Museum Belvédère. Museum BoijmansVan Beuningen concludes this trilogy.

Sensory Spaces 4 - Liu Wei

The focus of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s summer programme this year iscontemporary Chinese art. To coincide with Focus on Beijing, the Chinese artist Liu Wei has been commissioned by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen to make a site-specific installationfor the Sensory Spaces series. In this series an artist is invited to respond to the properties of a particular space-the museum’s Willem van der Vorm Gallery and manipulate them in anunexpected manner. Liu Wei’s monumental work is a reflection on China’s urbanization.

Catalogue/ARTtube

Accompanying the exhibition is a publication with contributions by Feng Boyi, Hans den Hartog Jager, Noor Mertens and Sjarel Ex. An ARTtube video is also being developed for the exhibition.

More information on the website of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen