Exhibition — Oct 27, 2018 until Feb 24, 2019

The Stedelijk presents the first museum retrospective of Lily van der Stokker, featuring drawings and wall paintings from the late 1980s to the present.

Van der Stokker’s visual language of flowers, looping lines, clouds and curlicues in bold, bright colors, raises questions about what we regard as typically feminine. Her work can be placed in the tradition of feminist art, which does not conform to prevailing standards of good taste. As such, she often exploits concepts that are ‘banned’ from contemporary art, such as the frivolous and decorative.
The exhibition Lily van der Stokker - Friendly Good is her most extensive presentation in a museum so far and most of the works have not been shown in the Netherlands before.

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I am trying to be a friendly person and my art has to be about that. I like the colors to be bright and cheap looking so that I can combine my conceptualism with pleasure.

— Lily van der Stokker in conversation with John Waters

This exhibition comes with an audio tour. In this audio tour, Lily van der Stokker herself talks about a particular artwork on display in each gallery.

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Often incorporating words and phrases, Van der Stokker’s work is firmly rooted in the tradition of conceptual art. Similar to her conceptual forbears (Joseph Kosuth, Lawrence Weiner, Robert Barry), Van der Stokker uses text to explore the essence of art, although as she does so, asks very different questions. Can artists show failures? Is it alright for art to be untrue? Or funny and sweet?

  • Installation view Lily van der Stokker - Friendly Good, 2018, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij.
    Installation view Lily van der Stokker - Friendly Good, 2018, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij.
  • Friendly Good, 1992–2018 acrylic paint on wall, courtesy the artist. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
    Friendly Good, 1992–2018 acrylic paint on wall, courtesy the artist. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
  • Tidy Kitchen, 2015–2018 acrylic paint on wall, mixed media, courtesy the artist. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
    Tidy Kitchen, 2015–2018 acrylic paint on wall, mixed media, courtesy the artist. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
  • Mistake painting, 1991–2018 acrylic paint on wall, courtesy the artist. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
    Mistake painting, 1991–2018 acrylic paint on wall, courtesy the artist. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
  • Experimental Art by Older Women, 1999–2018 acrylic paint on wall, courtesy the artist. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij
    Experimental Art by Older Women, 1999–2018 acrylic paint on wall, courtesy the artist. Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij

I am a beauty specialist. I have commissioned myself to research happiness and friendliness in my artwork, and with that I take a stand against irony and cynicism.

— Lily van der Stokker

About the artist

Lily van der Stokker (born Den Bosch, 1954, lives and works in Amsterdam and New York) ran a gallery in New York in the 1980s and staged one of her first exhibitions at Museum Fodor, Amsterdam (1991). In the 1990s she received international acclaim with shows at venues such as the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Centre Pompidou, (Paris), Villa Arson, (Nice). Her work has recently been the subject of important solos at Tate St. Ives (2010), New Museum in New York (2013) and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2015). She has also completed several monumental public art projects such as the Celestial Teapot, Hoog Catharijne, Utrecht, (2013) and Pink Building during the World Expo in Hannover (2000). Lily van der Stokker exhibits at gallery Kaufmann Repetto in Milano, Air de Paris in Paris en gallery Van Gelder in Amsterdam.

The exhibition Lily van der Stokker – Friendly Good is generously supported by the International Collector Circle and Curator Circle of the Stedelijk Museum Fonds and by the Mondriaan Fonds.