Han's choice – 25 years of Peter ter Braak Art Gallery
About this activity.
Peter ter Braak has been running his art gallery at the Noorderhaven for 25 years.He wanted to celebrate this with an exhibition that would require little work of his own – he deserved it after all those years – and decided to ask me to act as guest curator. I was allowed to choose from the many works he had in stock. Of course I agreed, for the sake of friendship and for those 25 years of which I only experienced 8. In those 8 years I got to know Peter as a dealer, but especially as a passionate admirer of post-war expressionism in the Netherlands, a preference I shared with him. Often when I was with him, he would bring them out – large canvases, painted with broad gestures and bright colours. Roelof Frankot, Fred Sieger, Dolf Breetvelt always passed by, but also Jaap Nanninga, with that beautiful, poetic composition, that I could not take my eyes off.
Thanks in part to Peter, that painting eventually ended up in ‘my’ museum. What really appealed to me was that Peter not only focused on the past, but also gave space to living artists from the north, including Esther van Dijk, Frank Hutchison, Otto Krol, Gert Sennema, Jochem Hamstra and Martin de Jong. That in particular made – and makes – his exhibition space a meaningful place of gathering. I hope that Peter can continue that line in the next 25 years – art in the north needs it.
As I write this, my work as guest curator has yet to begin. The day after tomorrow I will be allowed to browse through Peter's collection and I hope to make a choice in which the past and the present connect.
Han Steenbruggen
Museum Belvédère
Opening hours:
friday, saturday & sunday from noon - 6 p.m.
Kunsthandel Peter ter Braak.
Kunsthandel Peter ter Braak is gespecialiseerd in Hollandse en Belgische schilderkunst uit de periode 1900 - 1980, met een bijzondere focus op lyrisch-abstracte schilderkunst.
Daarnaast exposeert de kunsthandel regelmatig hedendaagse kunst, veelal uit het noorden des lands.
Location.
Kunsthandel Peter ter Braak
Noorderhaven 50
9712 VL Groningen
tel 0651451100
peterterbraak.nl/site/index.php/exposities/