Gemeentemuseum Den Haag | Hans van Bentem

Keep on Dreaming
Solo Show
Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
The Hague
from 02 June 2012 till 11 November 2012
With: Hans van Bentem

This major exhibition in The Municipal Museum of The Hague includes six rooms with a large ceramic sculpture and pieces of porcelain, wood, bronze and crystal by first rate artist in 'the extraordinairy ordinary' Hans van Bentem.

The opening will be on the first of June, 2012.

Hans van Bentem's upcoming exhibition in The Hague showcases the results of an artistic career that spans almost a quarter of a century. His installations are displayed in the period authentic interior-rooms of the Gemeentemuseum; the ideal setting for an unprecedented encounter between the present and the past, and between east and west.

First Room
The first of the spaces houses his Table of Seductions, a table made entirely of traditional Makkum earthenware and bearing dishes adorned with portraits of seductive couples – a piece in which it is immediately clear that all sorts of things are going on.

Louis XV Room
The installation in the Louis XV Room is completely different: a ‘wild’ assemblage of wooden objects created in collaboration with local artists in Senegal.

Gobelin Room
Meanwhile, the Gobelin Room features an object of which most people can only dream: a crystal four-poster bed entitled Heaven (see image). With lights that gradually come on and go out as day changes to night, the bed is Van Bentem’s idea of the ultimate chandelier.

Japanese Room
Finally, the imitation lacquer interior of the Japanese Room provides the perfect setting for a gleaming installation of pure white Chinese porcelain sculptures of various body parts on a bed of lotus flowers, stones and lumps of rock.

Hans van Bentem's breathtaking installations are informed by influences he sponges up from around the world and the exciting and eclectic oeuvre that results features elements as diverse as robots, lotus flowers, a Kalashnikov and a phallus. His art is designed first and foremost to elicit emotion. In this respect, the artist himself claims to be ‘a romantic, primarily in search of the beautiful.’ He operates entirely autonomously and independently in the contemporary art world of today.

The exhibition is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated Dutch-English book of the same title. Keep on Dreaming (ISBN: 978 94 91196 19 5) is written by Titus M. Eliëns.