Young & Promising

Museum Villa Mondriaan focuses on the young talent of Piet Mondriaan. The latest exhibition Young & Promising pays attention to young artistic talent from both the past and the present. The museum selected eight young and talented photographers from a shortlist that was compiled in cooperation with FOAM (Museum of Photography Amsterdam). They were asked to react artistically to an early Mondriaan. The photographs of, among others, Louise te Poele, Vytautas Kumža and Lonneke van der Palen hang side by side with Mondriaan’s work. Other participants are Larissa Ambachtsheer, Tessa van Rijn, Eva Roovers, Liesbeth Oosterom and Satijn Panyigay. Mondriaan’s young talent is a source of inspiration for today’s young talents.

Hidden symbolism and stylized landscapes

The nominated photographers hold their own views on Mondriaan’s oeuvre. Louise te Poele literally completes Mondriaan’s semicircle Uw Woord is de Waarheid (Thine Word is the Truth, 1894) into a full circle with her huge photograph Welcome to the pleasure dôme Mondriaan (2017). Just like Mondriaan’s oil painting Te Poele’s photograph bristles with references and symbols, offering an exciting counterbalance for the religious tone of Uw Woord is de Waarheid.

Vytautas Kumža was inspired by one of Villa Mondriaan’s favourites, Mondriaan’s Bos (Forest, 1899), whose rhythm and structure are reflected in Kumža’s photograph. Kumža created a similar unreal landscape with the equipment in his studio. His static and lifeless apparatus shows the same rhythm as Mondriaan’s living scenery. Kumža’s photograph crudely exposes the underlying skeleton of the gouache.