Guest exhibitioners

Anne Feddema

April 5 – June 22, 2025

A presentation of recent paintings and works on paper by visual artist Anne Feddema (1961) that are part of a still lasting series in which nature and the experience of nature are leitmotifs. In his work Feddema depicts dreamlike magic gardens in which birds are excluded from warm-coloured trees, shrubs and evening skies, in which Christ spends his last night or in which the figure of the painter is transported by his overwhelming subject.

Feddema celebrates the grandeur and beauty of nature in paintings and drawings that are pleasantly enticing, but sometimes also evoke a sultry tension.

Anne Feddema lives and works in Leeuwarden. He is one of the most important visual artists and poets of Friesland. In 2008 a major exhibition of his work was organised in Museum Belvédère, in which a monograph was published.

Jan van der Kooi
who are you when no one is looking

January 25 – June 22, 2025

Jan van der Kooi (1958) has exhibited paintings and drawings at home and abroad. He has lived and worked in Friesland for 50 years, but has rarely exhibited here. Van der Kooi is internationally regarded as one of the best draughtsmen of the moment, whose work echoes the tradition of the old masters.

For his first drawing exhibition in Friesland, Museum Belvédère selected, in consultation with the artist, a series of drawings that he made in the De Veenhoop area and a series of self-portraits. In both the landscapes and the self-portraits, Jan van der Kooi shows his great craftsmanship and special powers of observation.

In his drawings of the vast Frisian landscape – drawn with reed pen and self-made ink – he manages to make the weather and wind tangible and to evoke atmosphere and space with minimal means.

In this room exhibition, a series of self-portraits are shown as a coherent group for the first time. In addition to ink, Van der Kooi draws his self-image in pencil, black chalk and sanguine. He rarely works from the contour, but starts from an abstract spot, in generous gestures with a great sense of plasticity, light and shadow, a painterly approach that characterizes the self-portraits in particular.

The self-portraits on display were created in the past decades and thus show the passing of the years in a series of sequences. Above all, they are observations and self-reflections, with the recurring question: who are you when no one is looking?

Han van Hagen
Takkenhoogte (Branch height)

January 25 – June 22, 2025

Since his academy days, more than fifty years ago, Han van Hagen (1944) has been fascinated by the graphics of Hercules Segers. His visits to the major Segers exhibition, which was on display at the Rijksmuseum in 2016-2017, inspired him to create Takkenhoogte, a project in which he began to experiment with the many possibilities of the etching technique, following the example of the seventeenth-century master.

The starting point for the project was an etching of a group of elder trees seen and drawn from the artist's studio. For each subsequent etching, he used different ore techniques, types of paper (some centuries old), types of ink and paint. The project became an ongoing investigation into new possibilities and grew into a series of almost 300 different prints.

On the occasion of his eightieth birthday, in 2024, Van Hagen decided to record the history of the Takkenhoogte project in a book. More than thirty-five authors contributed to this publication – visual artists, art historians, writers, poets and a composer – who were inspired by one or more sheets of their choice.

The exhibition Han van Hagen – Takkenhoogte shows a wide selection of the etchings that the artist made between 2017 and now. In one of the print rooms, special reproductions of etchings by Hercules Segers can be seen.

The book Han van Hagen – Takkenhoogte. Geïnspireerd door Hercules Segers is available in the museum shop.

Danielle van Broekhoven
by nature

January 25 – March 30, 2025

The paintings of Daniëlle van Broekhoven (1975) move on the intersection of figuration and abstraction. Nature is her main theme, but instead of literally depicting it, she prefers personal imagination and, with her expressive works, she evokes the energy and dynamics of landscapes and vegetation.

Daniëlle van Broekhoven combines classical with more experimental techniques. An important aspect of this is the tension between control and chance. Just like in nature, where order and chaos often go hand in hand, Van Broekhoven leaves room for spontaneous processes in her paintings. She paints without a preconceived plan and without pre-made sketches, which gives her works a spontaneous and expressive character.

Van Broekhoven lets water reflect in a broad brushstroke, evokes branches or plant leaves with straight lines and knows how to suggest space with a spot of colour. Natural sensations become paint sensations and vice versa.

In a description of her work, former director of De Pont museum Hendrik Driessen notes: ‘Looking at her work, you feel that she has made her subject so completely her own that the distinction between seeing, experiencing and making disappears. Each painting bears witness to a deeply felt idea of ​​what we consider natural and therefore becomes almost as self-evident as nature itself.’

Daniëlle van Broekhoven lives and works in Well, Gelderland. She studied at the art academies of Tilburg and Breda. Her work has been represented in the collection of Museum Belvédère since 2018. Pictures: Courtesy of Galerie Huub Hannen.