Singer Laren and the RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History are joining forces for the Kees van Dongen exhibition. Dare and Temptation . It focuses on the period that would lead to Van Dongen's world fame. His debut, breakthrough and early development up to the work with which he made his name as one of the most important 'fauves'.
The exhibition with a hundred paintings and drawings by Kees van Dongen (1877-1968) will start in January 2023 in a completely renovated Singer Laren.
Kees van Dongen belonged to the vanguard of Dutch artists who sought innovation in Paris around 1900. There he embraced the avant-garde and in 1905 Picasso invited him to move into a studio in the Bateau-Lavoir. In free Montmartre, Van Dongen found himself at the center of artistic innovation. In this environment – in the footsteps of Van Gogh – he developed into a painter of figures and an innovator through color and touch. Thanks to the stay in Paris, the many international exhibitions, and the combination of talent and daring, Van Dongen became one of the most important representatives of Fauvism. The artistic-revolutionary and sensual became associated with his name.
The exhibition Kees van Dongen. Dare and temptationis compiled by guest curator Anita Hopmans, Senior Conservator at the RKD. Hopmans is an international specialist in the artist's oeuvre and will bring together highlights and key pieces for this exhibition, including a number of prominent (international) loans such as the 1911 work Deux yeux from the JK Art Foundation collection, which has never been shown in the Netherlands before.