Reductive.NL

This exhibition catalogue comprises texts presenting the life and work of over 30 Dutch artists from four generations covering a span of almost 60 years (born in the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 80s). The exhibition presents geometric-abstract tendencies inspired both by Soviet constructivism and the Dutch De Stijl movement. In his text, Piet Augustijn notes that the revival (or perhaps rather the preserved tradition) of geometric abstraction in the Netherlands can be traced to the Calvinist roots of Dutch society: “Behave normally, no nonsense please. Order, regularity, systematicity and primary colours are just as appropriate to this mentality as the straight lines of dykes and canals and the rectilinear fields in a landscape where even the forests are cultivated in straight lines.” However, the exhibition reveals far more than this cold, severe geometric aesthetic: readers can discover a much wider spectrum of approaches, including organic art, op-art, structural and purely minimalist works.