Dutch digest: Jeanne van Heeswijk wins $25,000 prize for art activism

A giant wooden rabbit by Dutch artist Jeanne van Heeswijk

Dutch contemporary artist Jeanne van Heeswijk wins 2011 Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change, Creative Time Summit, New York on 25 September.

Creative Time jurors for this year´s prize: curator Christine Tohme (Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts); curator Hou Hanru (San Francisco Art Institute) and Air America news personality Laura Flanders.

Previous winners of the New York not-for-profit group: Rick Lowe (2010) and the Yes Men (2009).

In other events featuring Dutch artists:

Vincent van Gogh, self-portrait

Vincent van Gogh´s life story will morph into another bio-film, this time by Kallipe Films. Online reports Kallipe is looking for a director for the shoot, which will be staged in authentic van Gogh haunts in Europe.

In Amsterdam, the Meneer de Wit Gallery, has opened this week with an eclectic group show: videos, graphics, music, paintings, designs, an installation, fashion presentations, even a dance party.

Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, Italy this week opened a Renaissance show, “Money and Beauty: Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities.”

One of the works by Marinus van Reymerswaele should provoke thought about Europe´s current financial crisis, titled: “The Money Changer and his Wife.”

The historical venue makes sense since Florence was the hub of the banking system in 1252, according to art historian Ludovica Sebregondi.

The show closes 22 January.

Bird artist Ewoud de Broot told an Arizona news outlet he is thrilled to be among the best of the best bird artists at what is considered the world´s largest gathering of high-flying international artists: Birds in Art, a show of 112 artists at the Woodson Art Museum, Flagstaff, AZ; 33 of the group are reported from the United States.

Hendrik van Leeuwen, artist and art critic, has inspired a show, “Apart Yet Together” opening 1 October at The Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs, Kansas.

Van Leeuwen worked with 21 students ages 10 to 75. The Dutch artist inspired and taught the novice abstract artists. See www.pioneerbluffs.org and look under “Masterclass.”

Willem de Kooning, “de Kooning: A Retrospective” through 9 January at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. It includes 200 paintings, sculptures and drawings.

“Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art runs through 30 October.  The New York Times calls this show “a powerful declaration of faith.”

by Rembrandt van Rijn

Paintings depict the Jewish ethnicity of Jesus, his humanity.

Rembrandt and his circle on show at the Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut  (22 Sept. – 8 Jan.); 60 works selected from American collectors George Abrams and his late wife, Maida.

A work by Rembrandt´s Circle

Rock on and practice peace and love.

Stefan, the ArtTraveler ™

Visit Andalusia for a walking holiday or week-long sculpture or mosaics workshop. See: www.spanjeanders.nl and www.competafinearts.com.

"Spanish life stilled," photograph by Stefan van Drake (2009)

 ArtTraveler´s video: an interview with Scottish illustrator and painter, Gordon Wilson, about his new "I Love Fish" exhibition, inspired by a commissioned mural he did 12 years ago for a West Glasgow gangster, who loved supporting writers and artists as well as organized crime.

You may reach me at stefanvandrake@gmail.com or by calling (34) 915 067 703 or from the UK at BT landline rates, 0844 774 8349.