11Da: Eleven Dutch Artists

Artists: Ben d’Armagnac, Mari Boeijen, Sjoerd Buisman, Gerrit Dekker, Paul van Dijk, Pieter Engels, Wim Gijzen, Jan Hoving, Rob van Koningsbruggen, Hans de Vries, and Lex Wechgelaar.

An exhibition initiated by the Richard Demarco Gallery, and organised by the Scottish Arts Council and the Netherlands Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Social Welfare. Edinburgh International Show 1974. Toured to Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum.

From the exhibition catalogue:

‘There is in fact no one overall theme to the exhibition. Essentially it presents nothing more than the work of eleven independent individuals. Among them are artists who use trees, plant stains, maps photo-documentation or written notes, as well as those who prefer to pursue the more traditional media of pencil drawing, painting and printing. Yet, without wishing to create labels and categories that can be as suspect and as misleading as national bracketings, certain themes and tendencies do emerge, and some interests can be seen as shared… There’s the involvement with landscape and environment on a personal level, and the attempt to find a means of expressing this in a contemporary way. Then there’s the use of documentary material, statistics, growth charts and maps, and the extension of such material to the art context. And thirdly there’s the exploration of the means of expressing the subtle variations of surfaces in nature as in art, and as an extension of this the examination of the shifting tones of meaning with the language of art.’

The catalogue can be consulted at the National Library of Scotland. Click here for details

Ruth Bretherick
Research and Public Engagement Curator
May 2024

Image: National Library of Scotland