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the Collector:
Beyond The Amateur - A collector's perspective on the history of photography
14 march – 30 may 2010
Curator: Yvon Schoenmakers
Researcher & Collector: Arjan de Nooy
As a collector, Arjan de Nooy amassed a collection of the work of dozens of Dutch photographers. His scientific background as a chemist led him to pursue a research-based method, focusing on the lives and oeuvres of largely unknown photographers. In years past, Marres has organised a number of different projects addressing the role and significance of “the collector,” such as La Collection Imaginaire and After Cage. This time, Marres shows how the research-oriented approach not only has its impact on one collector’s method of collecting, but also reveals unknown facts and gaps in the history of Dutch photography. Beyond The Amateur - A collector's perspective on the history of photography presents a selection of the most historically significant photographers in the collection of Arjan de Nooy.
The exhibition begins with work by 18th-century scientist Adriaan Paauw, who De Nooy classes as “the inventor of photography.” Around 1790, this obscure assistant of botanist Sebald Brugmans developed a photographic procedure in which he was able to “copy” objects in the form of photograms. Next in the exhibit is Théophile de Bock, the well-known painter of the Hague School. But De Bock was also one of the few Dutch 19th-century landscape photographers, in that he took photographs of landscapes and trees in particular to aid him in his paintings. The exhibit presents a series of these photographs recently discovered in the archives of “de Haagse Kunstkring”. Last in the exhibit are photographs by Eline Portman, one of a select group of early 20th-century female photographers. The exhibit presents some of the many portraits of passers-by she took in the city of Valkenburg. Her work shows similarities with that of German photographer August Sander.
De Nooy offers an extensive account of all three photographers in his recently published report of his research, De Facto, een geschiedenis van de Nederlandse fotografie (“De Facto: a history of Dutch photography”). Marres presents these works for the first time, including Paauw’s sensational prints.
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