Sunday Seminar: Photography criticism and the reception history of Ed van der Elsken

The Stedelijk Museum, in cooperation with the authors of Tussen kunst en document: Fotografiekritiek in Nederland 1980–2015 and in conjunction with the exhibition Ed van der Elsken – Camera in Love (Feb. 4 — May 21, 2017), organizes an afternoon with lectures and discussions on the development of photography criticism in the Netherlands since the 1980s and the reception of Ed van der Elsken.

Guest speakers:

- author Frits Gierstberg (curator, Netherlands Photo Museum, Rotterdam) 
- curator and author Anne Ruygt (Tate research fellow, London)
- photography conservator Hripsimé Visser (Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam)
- writer and producer Roel Bentz van den Berg 
- writer and critic Taco Hidde Bakker (Extra and Conversations on Photography, among others)

The reception history, including investigations of exhibition reviews, tells us a great deal about the development of an artistic discipline. Although the Stedelijk Museum has been following photographer Ed van der Elsken since the 1950s, and is currently organizing its third large retrospective exhibition on him, it is only since the 1980s and ’90s that his work has been treated with some seriousness in art criticism. How have critics viewed his work, and how has their outlook on it changed over time?

During this afternoon event, the authors of Tussen kunst en document: Fotografiekritiek in Nederland 1980–2015, Frits Gierstberg and Anne Ruygt, will shed light on the conclusions to their research on the development of Dutch photography criticism since 1980. Conservator Hripsimé Visser will focus on Ed van der Elsken’s reception history. Author Roel Bentz van den Berg will lecture on his 1995 discussion of Van der Elsken’s love pictures, as presented in Tussen kunst en document, an anthology of the most admired photography criticisms of the past thirty-five years, with contributions from Hans Aarsman, Hans den Hartog Jager, and Mariette Haveman, among others, about well-known photographers such as Robert Frank, Nan Goldin, and Allan Sekula, as well as on topics such as World Press Photo, the place of amateur photography, and the photographer as a “lazy painter.” Along with critic Taco Hidde Bakker, the authors will discuss topical developments in photography criticism, with as a starting point the question: what are the conceivable perspectives for a contemporary understanding of Van der Elsken’s work?

CREDITS

This program is organized with support from nai010 publishers, on the occasion of the publication Tussen kunst en document: Fotografiekritiek in Nederland 1980–2015 (Frits Gierstberg and Anne Ruygt, nai010 publishers, 2016).

The publication is the ninth in the eleven-part series Kunstkritiek in Nederland 1885–2015, an initiative of Dr. Peter de Ruiter (University of Groningen) and Dr. Jonneke Jobse (formerly of VU Amsterdam), produced by nai010 publishers. The series is made possible by the generous support of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and AICA Netherlands.

Following the event, the publication will be available for €34,95. Buy two parts of the series with a special discount of € 10.