Freedom is Recognized Necessity

Freedom is Recognized Necessity will be on view at the Stedelijk Museum from 3 March – 12 August 2018. The exhibition sheds light on a remarkable chapter in the Stedelijk’s collection history. Featured are artworks from the Soviet sphere of influence, acquired by the Stedelijk after the end of the Cold War. In the 1990s, the Stedelijk hosted several exhibitions highlighting contemporary art from the (former) ‘Eastern Bloc’ countries, which led to the purchase and donation of numerous artworks. Reflections on the political situation and references to early 20th century art are important themes, together with the suggestive use of symbols, and strategies related to performance. The title of the exhibition is borrowed from a painting by the Russian painter Leonid Lamm (1928-2017): Adam and Eve: Freedom is Recognized Necessity (1974-1984), in which Lamm underlines the complex relationships between freedom and necessity while simultaneously delivering an ironic commentary on the socialist dictatorship.

Previous exhibitions at the Stedelijk with work from the former Eastern Bloc

The avant-garde in Eastern and Western Europe maintained an intense exchange before World War Two. However, during the Communist dictatorship – when Eastern Europe disappeared behind the Iron Curtain – and the Cold War, such encounters were impossible for decades.

 In the mid-’80s, when Mikhail Gorbachev was head of the Soviet Union, with his reform politics of perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost (openness) information about the art of this era started to emerge. Whereupon, the Stedelijk organized a number of exhibitions in the ’90s, including In the USSR and Beyond (1990), Wanderlieder (1991) and Kabinet (1997), occasioning the purchase or donation of works to the collection. 

Political commentary

The works in Freedom is Recognized Necessity were produced between 1975 and 2010, by artists from widely varied backgrounds. Some spent their entire lives in the country of their birth, while others emigrated. One of the exhibition themes engages with artists’ perceptions of the socialist dictatorship. In the series Case History (1991-1998), Boris Mikhailov (Charkov, 1938) documents the realities ensuing from the dissolution of the USSR. Staged photos chronicle the aftermath of the dictatorship, still painfully evident in the economic conditions and everyday realities of the homeless. The enormous painting Two with Forks (1990) by Oleg Tselkov (Moscow, 1934) depicts a pair of gigantic, monstrous, expressionless figures. With their mask-like faces, the two men serve as a metaphor for the loss of identity and individuality in Soviet society.

Performance

The use of performance as medium is another central theme in Freedom is Recognized Necessity. Performance, or performance-based work, is evident in the work of artists such as Ion Grigorescu (Bucharest, 1945), who gave his performances in the privacy of his own apartment, and Zofia Kulik (Wroclaw, 1947) who incorporated registrations of performance in her monumental photo-carpet, Ulubiona Rownowaga.

Gallery Talk with Hripsimé Visser

On 9 March, the Stedelijk Museum is organizing Gallery Talk with exhibition-maker, photography curator, and curator of Freedom is Recognized Necessity, Hripsimé Visser. In the form of a guided tour, Visser will talk about the exhibition that illuminates a fascinating chapter of the Stedelijk Museum’s collection history. Tickets can be booked through our website, click here.

Stedelijk Turns

The exhibition is part of a new, long-term research program, STEDELIJK TURNS, an experimental way of approaching, interpreting and presenting the museum collection.