The Fries Museum has compiled an exhibition from a gift from Willem van Zoetendaal. This gift from designer and publisher Van Zoetendaal consists of more than 100 photographs by notable Dutch and international photographers. A careful selection has been made for the exhibition, which is entitled Dicht op de huid (Close to the Skin), and can be seen in the Fries Museum from 11 April to 30 August 2015.
The exhibition provides good insight into Van Zoetendaal's interests. The photos are all close to the skin and compassionate. Also, they are all parts of series and not individual photographs. Following a single topic in the way Arno Nollen (Ede, 1964) does, produces a series of photos with sometimes minimal differences. Nollen clearly has a fascination for his subject: girls. Photographer Harold Strak (Mozambique, 1959) zooms in on the dust and insects in his studio. His enlargements invoke cosmic associations. Travel photos by Ulay (Germany, 1943) are a documentary look at a 90-day walk along the Great Wall of China. Hein Kuhn-Oh (Seoul, 1963) photographs young girls and women as they are stereotypically portrayed in the Korean media, seemingly always aware that someone is looking at them. The Amsterdam Muslim girls in the portraits by Celine van Balen (1965, Amsterdam) have impassive eyes but are still extremely intense.
Willem van Zoetendaal (The Hague, 1950) was long associated with the Rietveld Academy as a teacher, firstly in the field of graphic design and later as senior lecturer in photography. From 1981 to 1992, Van Zoetendaal was designer and art director at NRC Handelsblad, and since 1994 has been active as a publisher of (photography) books. He opened his own gallery in 2000, which he closed in 2014.
Because Van Zoetendaal’s collection continues to grow, he decided to divest part of it and donate it to the Fries Museum. Director Saskia Bak extremely pleased about this: ‘The gift includes works by artists who we already have in our collection and they connect seamlessly to them. We are honoured that Mr Van Zoetendaal selected the Fries Museum for this gift. And he made us this gift after visiting the Horizons exhibition, which can also be seen again from 11 April.’
