De Stadshof Collection, the Netherlands - MEET THE COLLECTOR Series Part Twenty Five

For part twenty-five of my #MeetTheCollector series meet Liesbeth Reith and Frans Smolders, who today both work on the De Stadshof Collection. I met Frans many years ago at the Outsider Art Fair in Paris and I have visited the part of their collection that is housed in the Dr Guislain Museum in Ghent several times. Read on to find out more and why they tend to use the term 'solitary creations' instead of outsider art ...

Liesbeth & Frans in the Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, Collection De Stadshof show, 2014

1. When did your interests in the field of outsider art begin?
'How come we don't have a museum for naïve art in the Netherlands?' Liesbeth’s father wondered in late 1983, 'plenty of other countries have opened museums like that in recent years. Couldn't we found one here?' Coming from her father, who lived in a house full of professional modern art and had never spoken of this new interest before, the question surprised her.

She gradually started to share her father's conviction that authentic naïve art deserved its own museum, and decided to invest time in the project – with such a diversity of styles and movements, this art was unlikely to find a place in art history otherwise, and seemed destined to stay on the margins. For it to become fully understood and preserved for future generations, it needed to be systematically collected and exhibited.

Bonaria Manca, L'Armatore, undated, oil on plywood, 118 x 116 cm © Marcel Köppen

2. When did you become collectors of this art? How many pieces do you think are in the collection now? 
Liesbeth is the founding mother / initiator of the De Stadshof Collection in the early 1980’s and still going strong as a member of the board of the Foundation and as a collector. Liesbeth succeeded in getting people in high places enthusiastic for her plans. It resulted in erecting a foundation to run the first art centre for naïve art in Rotterdam, and in 1994 in the opening of a special museum for naïve and outsider art in the city of Zwolle.

The name of the foundation then changed in De Stadshof Collection Foundation. Its goal is to collect and keep a Solitary Creations art collection. The collection now encompasses around 6,000 remarkable works of art, tracked down in 35 years by several people in slightly changing line-up, inspired and headed by Liesbeth Reith and Ans van Berkum (until 2000).

From the start of Museum De Stadshof in Zwolle the team took the bull by the horns, flattering artists, collectors and institutions with the prospect of a new museum dedicated to their art, asking them point-blank for donations or loans. It was an intoxicating time: the sky was the limit, and the results were overwhelming. Offers and tips flooded in from all sides, and the more the collection grew in importance, the more donations, too, snowballed. Artists, their families and collectors were grateful for the opportunity of housing their art objects in a specialised museum.

Leading Dutch cultural funds, companies and some private persons also provided the means for extensive acquisitions. For instance of work by two great Dutch artistic talents: such as a large series of paintings and embroideries by Siebe Wiemer Glastra and the majority of the acquired pieces by Willem van Genk.

And do you exhibit any of it on the walls of your homes? 
Art works owned by the foundation will go to Museum Dr. Guislain in Ghent, the keeper of the collection. At home we both have our walls covered with all kinds of art works, mostly acquired because of a special story attached to each, a special memory, a relationship.

Truus Kardol, Untitled phiz, c.1962-’65, conté crayon on paper, 50 x 65 cm © Marcel Köppen

3. Liesbeth you founded the De Stadshof Collection in the early 1980’s, what is your role there now? And Frans you became involved in 1994, what is your role there now?
Liesbeth indefatigably spends much of her time to the Stadshof collection: she makes inquiries into artworks in the store rooms and in the library, she advises for shows and loans, she is maintaining relations with artists, donors and gallery owners. And collecting is an ongoing process in close co-operation with Frans. Furthermore she is still going strong as a member of the board of the Foundation.

Frans Smolders is an art historian and museum professional. As such Frans was asked to join the board of the De Stadshof Foundation when Museum De Stadshof started in 1994. Gradually he was drawn into the collection. From 2009 on he is curator, co-collector and secretary to the board.

Markus Meurer, Holländische Tänzerin, c. 1985-1995, assemblage of scrap material and found objects, 105 x 88 x 32 cm © Marcel Köppen

4. Can you tell us a bit about your backgrounds before this?
Liesbeth: I became a mother at young age. Some years later my then husband had an interesting job for the Cultural Committee of the Council of Europe, for which he had to travel a lot all over Europe for meetings and research. I was allowed to accompany him and organised my own parallel cultural program. By self-tuition in art history, historic and modern architecture and heritage I made an academy-like catch-up effort.

Frans: I have been working as an art historian and museum professional in several museums in The Netherlands. My core business turned out to be concept development for all kinds of art and heritage exhibits and for total museum renewal and refurbishing. I am an omnivorous art lover.

5. What is it that draws your eyes away from (contemporary) art to outsider art? Or do you collect both?
We both visit many museums, exhibits and biennials, mainly in western Europe, and we both enjoy looking at art by strong self-willed artists of all periods, classic and contemporary: Caravaggio, Tintoretto, Rembrandt, Velasquez, El Greco, Goya, Munch, Lucian Freud, Marlene Dumas, etc. But we feel equally attracted to what we call Solitary Creations: the offspring from individual natural, innate, not-knowing artistic talents. To us, they are compelling because of their comparable intensity, imagination and existential content.

We fulfill the foundation’s mission to collect ‘masterpieces of the margin’, being aware that the collection bears the stamp of our personalities.

Willem van Genk, Brooklyn Bridge, 1960-1975, mixed media and collage on paper, 98 x 178 cm © Marcel Köppen

6. A conflicted term at present, but can you tell us about your opinion of the term outsider art, how you feel about it and if there are any other words that you think we should be using instead? I know you titled the book about the collection ‘Solitary Creations,’ so is that a term you prefer and why?
The late Laurent Danchin recognised our self-willed vision and non-conformism. As he wrote in the Introduction to our collection catalogue Solitary Creations: “the De Stadshof collection is part of the heterodox category of contemporary marginal art that represents a form of openness, perhaps even dissidence in relation to Dubuffet’s somewhat suffocating viewpoint. (…) From the beginning, De Stadshof carved its own path, was less concerned with the past and more open to new encounters and opportunities.”

We indeed revised our collecting criteria as we went along. The reality of applying labels and categories invariably turned out to be far more complex than envisaged. Some oeuvres seemed to display characteristics of several categories, and sometimes part of an oeuvre seemed to belong to one and the rest to another, as in the case of Willem van Genk.

Solitary Creations is how we label works of art nowadays. That means that they are created outside the realms of mainstream art. It encompasses a wide range of creative expression, from outsider art, self-taught art, art brut, folk art and naïve art. Solitary Creations bespeak of the dreams, fears and fascinations of artistically gifted people, and of the irrepressible creative urge of the homo ludens, the ever playing/playful human being. The main criteria for acquisitions have remained unchanged to this day: artistic quality, autonomy and independence from their cultural environment together with an authenticity and strong-mindedness born from an irrepressible urge to create, which turn an oeuvre into a self-contained world.

We also use Solitary Creations to remember ourselves, and others, constantly that we don’t collect (a certain category of) people but a special kind of high quality art works. Just like the way professional/academic art is being collected. Outsider art and art brut are both too much connected to marginal people (social, medical). 

The book Solitary Creations is for sale only via the museum book shop of Museum Dr. Guislain in Ghent.

Johnson Weree, Ship, 2014, mixed media on paper, 32,5 x 50 cm © Marcel Köppen

7. What style of work, if any, is of particular interest to you both within this field? (for example is it embroidery, drawing, sculpture, and so on)
Liesbeth has a special feeling for draughtsmen with clear striping and scratching techniques, like Herman Bossert, Davood Koochaki and Roy Wenzel. 

Some ten years ago we found Markus Meurer, a highly talented and imaginative artist from Germany, whose voodoo-like power images stood out at De Stadshof exhibition Backyard Genius held at the Belgian Verbeke Foundation in 2010. Frans admires that kind of inspired non-academics, and all-rounders like Bertus Jonkers and Saï Kijima.

8. Would you say you had a favourite artist or piece of work each within the collection? And why?
Willem van Genk is indisputably the number one in our collection. Of great interest to us are the real authentic naïfs like Bonaria Manca, Pavel Leonov and Dirk Bos. Furthermore there are dozens of interesting Dutch artists like Truus Kardol and Paula Sluiter.

9. Where would you say you buy most of the work from: a studio, art fairs, exhibitions, auctions, or direct from artists? 
We already mentioned the way we went from the beginning until 2000. While we had no, or hardly any money of our own, we relied heavily on donations. We invested in relations, to gain trust of the artists and their families for the idea of a new home in De Stadshof Collection. Time-consuming but rewarding. A personal acquaintance with the artists themselves often adds to our love for the work.

The foundation operates like a museum according to ICOM’s definition: ‘a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits artworks for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment’. Acquired pieces will never be sold. As a registered social benefit organization (charity), the foundation profits from donations to the full extent thanks to complete exemption from taxation. For instance, a few years ago, Rich Shapero (USA) made a precious gift of some 20 large paintings by François Burland.

What has changed from 2000 on is the way we go about finding new work. We became more selective, not just in deciding which offers to accept, but also in the active search for unknown or little-known work – a search that still leads to wonderful discoveries. And yes, we buy pieces, preferably a series, directly from the artists. Only incidentally we buy in galleries. For instance Galerie Hamer provided art works by Davood Koochaki, Pavel Leonov, Philippe Azéma, Jean-Paul Nadau. Galerie Herenplaats is also a source for purchases, by workshop participants like Jeroen Pomp, as well as visiting artists like Johnson Weree and Hein Dingemans. Ceramics by Sylvia Katuszewski we acquired at the OAF in Paris.

S.W. Glastra, Daniel in the lion's den, embroidery, c. 1965-1970, silk and wool on linen, 90 x 100 cm © Marcel Köppen

10. Is there an exhibition in this field of art that you have felt has been particularly important? And why?
Many. To choose two: first Weltenwandler in Frankfurt, 2010, an exhibit of twelve entrancing outsider oeuvres, beautifully arranged in twelve adjacent spaces underscoring the individual hidden worlds. You could read the visitors’ faces: everyone was stupefied by the art treasures from all over the world. Curator Martina Weinhart. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWtDlJQxefk)

The second show to mention: The Shadow of the Avantgarde, Rousseau and the Forgotten Masters in Folkwang Museum, Essen, 2015-16 was a great ensemble of art brut, folk art and naïve art. The clustered oeuvres by self-taught artists were interspersed by well-known avant garde artworks from the prof scene, like Piet Mondrian, Max Ernst, Picasso, Blinky Palermo and Mike Kelley. The amateurs were well matched to, or even topped the profs. Curator Falk Wolf. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIVRgkDro64 )

11. Are there any people within this field that you feel have been particularly important to pave the way for where the field is at now?
Raw Vision, issued by John Maizels from 1989 on and still an authority on the field today, and the exhibits in the Halle Saint Pierre directed by Martine Lusardy both functioned as a forum for debate. We often received advice from Nico van der Endt, owner of Galerie Hamer in Amsterdam. He involved us in heated discussions about our collection parameters and made several donations and loans. Gérard Sendrey should not go unmentioned either, for introducing us in his network. And last but not least Laurent Danchin was a source of inspiration in many discussions.

Reuben Lake; Untitled (Family portrait), c. 2000, assemblage mixed media, 87 x 65 cm © Marcel Köppen

12. Your collection has been on long-term loan to the Dr. Guislain Museum in Ghent since 2002. How did this collaboration come about?
To cut a long story short: Museum De Stadshof in Zwolle was forced to close its doors in 2001, when the town council decided to end its subsidy in favour of fulfilling its old dream of a modern art museum. On our search for a new venue and armed with favourable reports of prominent cultural consultancies in our pocket we had promising contacts with some cultural partners/city councils. While the matter was rather urgent the financially independent Dr. Guislain Museum in Ghent made us an offer we couldn’t refuse, although the museum at that time was a single-subject museum on the history of psychiatry. In February 2002, the board signed a loans and cooperation agreement for a period of ten years, at least. With the arrival of the De Stadshof art collection the new department for outsider art was brought to life. Some mutual hesitations remained. Even though the scope of the Museum Dr. Guislain has in time gone further than the history of psychiatry, the starting point for exhibitions and other activities has always remained questioning the distinction between normal and abnormal. As art collectors we adhere to the recognisability and visibility of the name De Stadshof, because all the activities related to the collection – acquisition, exhibits and publicity - still are being conducted according to our own policy and preferences. On the whole it’s a win-win situation.

13. Do you have any other plans for the collection? And what happens to the works that are not hanging in Ghent?
De Stadshof Collection was on show in an extensive exhibition Sous le vent de l’art brut 2 at the Halle Saint Pierre in Paris in autumn 2014, with 40 artists with more than 300 works. In 2015 we had the opportunity to show an important part of the collection in the Kunstmuseum The Hague (at the time known as Gemeentemuseum), adjacent to the Mondriaan/De Stijl modern art department. Wonderful to see the lovers of modern and contemporary art being deeply moved by the outsider artworks.

Our wishes: new collection shows in some European art museums. Hopefully another catalogue will be issued in English /French/German language to make our (Dutch) discoveries better known.

We are happy with the yearly updated ‘permanent’ art department in Museum Dr. Guislain, Ghent. Furthermore we give lots of loans to art exhibits, worldwide. The works not on show are kept in large storerooms in Ghent.

Roy Wenzel, Untitled drawing, wax crayon on paper, 65 x 100 cm © Marcel Köppen

14. Are you looking to continue to add works to the collection – what sort of things?
We don’t focus on big names and we don’t want to rival the existing splendid collections. We like to strengthen oeuvres, finding key works of present artists, searching art by artistically gifted people in between cultures. (Like works of art already present in the collection by Mickaël Bethe-Selassié (Ethiopia-Paris); Adama Diakhaté (Senegal-Belgium); Luiz Figueiredo (Brazil-Europe); Jaber (Tunesia-France); Reuben Lake (Aruba-NL), Karhang Mui (NL-China); Johnson Weree (Liberia-NL)). In fieldwork, the courage to trust your own intuition is of the greatest importance in searching for contemporary oeuvres. We don’t seek for, rather find additional ‘things’.

15.  Is there anything else you would like to add?
Please visit www.collectiedestadshof.nl to discover the broad scope of our collecting activities.