Woody van Amen

Rotterdam artist Woody van Amen

The Kunsthal Rotterdam presents an overview of the work of Rotterdam artist Woody van Amen (1936). This exhibition celebrates his ninetieth birthday and honours one of the most influential Dutch artists of the post-war avant-garde. Woody van Amen: The Best of shows you key works from his oeuvre and traces the evolution of his work. From the early 1960s onwards, he grew into a pioneer of Pop Art in the Netherlands. From Pop Art paintings and assemblages to the iconic Taxat motif, the exhibition shows you how Van Amen explores the boundaries of visual culture, technology, and spirituality. His playful and direct visual language makes this artist relevant to this day.

Discover the development of pop art into symbolism

A remarkable work, Habanera (1961), was at the time one of the longest paintings in the world. The work is a painting on a thirteen-meter-long organ book. Van Amen applied his own abstract score over the holes that control the music. Rough splashes and brushstrokes show the speed with which the artist tackled the leporello. The exhibition also presents Van Amen's assemblages and Vibro objects. One of the important developments in his oeuvre is the use of symbols with a religious charge. He discovered these during his travels. Influences from Asia can be seen in drawings of Javanese shadow puppets and other cultural motifs. For instance, the taxat is one of the best-known symbols in his oeuvre. The exhibition is a collaboration between Kunsthal Rotterdam, Woody van Amen, and is initiated by the founder of EENWERK, Julius Vermeulen, and guest curator Irma Boom.