Exhibition highlighting digitised sculptor's archives
Now on view at the RKD: the exhibition Memorials: Statues of liberation. The temporary exhibition shows a selection of objects from the archives of four sculptors who were responsible for some of the best-known monumental memorial sculptures after World War II.
Digitaliserings project
In 2023, the RKD started digitising thirteen sculptors' archives relating to the period around World War II. The archives contain 40 metres of correspondence, personal documents, photographs and administration and provide insight into artistic life during the war and after the Liberation. Digitisation was recently completed and this month the archives will become available online in RKD Research.
2. Diary of Mari Andriessen from 1965: on 20-24 June 1965 he noted ‘chopping up Marine with v. Cr.’, collection RKD
Exhibition on commemorative monuments
For an impression of the archival material, a temporary exhibition was set up at the RKD with a small selection. The focus is on a specific aspect of the post-Liberation period, when there was a great need for monuments to keep the memory of the war alive and to commemorate the victims. In total, some 3,900 war memorials arose in the years 1945-1965. This unprecedented high number of monumental, autonomous sculptures in public spaces meant a large flow of commissions for artists and a boost for sculpture in the Netherlands.
4. Bill from Goedewaagen's Firma for 80 pieces of modelling clay for the Prometheus, 24 April 1947, collection RKD
Four sculptors
The exhibition Memorials: Statues of liberation shows the genesis and creation process of monuments by four sculptors who played an important role in post-war Holland: Mari Andriessen, Willem Reijers, Charlotte van Pallandt and Fred Carasso. In addition to archive material from the RKD, preliminary studies and models in plaster and bronze from the collection of Museum Beelden aan Zee are included. The exhibition runs until September 2025 and can be viewed during the RKD's opening hours. On 7 November, Dr Matisse Huiskes will hold an RKD Talk on Fred Carasso (in Dutch).
