GRID Graphic Museum Groningen is at a new location and will open it up with the exhibit The Next Call - H.N. Werkman and the international avant-garde. In this year of Werkman, how could GRID not dedicate its first exhibit to the artist and printer who, most importantly, stands atop the highest pedestal in Groningen? And it’s a solid pedestal at that: enthusiastically held up by the art world at home and abroad. It simply can’t be knocked down! And with good reason.
Recently, people were protesting in front of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in order to get the museum to take that Renoir nonsense down from the walls, because, come on: ‘Renoir sucks at painting!’ Should we expect similar scenes with Werkman here in Groningen? Absolutely not. ‘For Werkman, you don't have to defend yourself.’ These are the words of my former teacher Anneke de Vries, whose course I once took at the RUG with the exhibit-worthy name H.N. Werkman and the international avant-garde. Since then, I have considered myself a connoisseur. I meet her at the opening of the new GRID, and she still recognises me: “Heeey, Peter, of course. You had to resit that course, right?" Of course. Then again, in terms of resits, I am on an incredibly tall pedestal that doesn’t seem to end.
WERKMAN IN A STRAIGHTFORWARD NUTSHELL
But I digress: let’s get back to Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman. He lived from 1882 to 1945, married three times, had a thriving printing business and went bankrupt as well, had a Jewish cartoon hot off the presses in World War II, and was eventually shot by the Germans. If you are looking for more nuance, you can open one of the many thick books written about Werkman. Just before World War II, he was already recognised by Willem Sandberg, the director of the Stedelijk Museum at the time, but his career really took off after the war. Werkman had solo exhibits around the world, including at the Guggenheim in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Henk van Os, former director of the Rijksmuseum, recently said in Vrij Nederland: ‘Van Gogh, Mondrian and Werkman: these are the three greatest artists the Netherlands has known" (Got it, but where’s Rembrandt?)
THE NEXT CALL: AN EXCLUSIVE PARTY
GRID is now showing The Next Call, a magazine that Werkman published nine times between 1923 and 1926 from a building on the Lage der Aa. Artist collective De Ploeg, of which Werkman was also a member, was one floor above him. In terms of drinking, it was a fine club — the empty bottles were thrown from the building onto the street — but in terms of art, Werkman found his Ploeg colleagues too well behaved. With The Next Call, he created an artistic dance floor for himself where he could let loose with typography, poetry and his famous printwork. It was an exclusive party, because Werkman did almost everything on his own, and because he used labour-intensive printing techniques, the editions were limited to about 40 copies per issue.
OUTSIDE INFLUENCES: MORE THAN WELCOME
That meant the number of recipients was small, but very international in character: The Next Call went global. In return, Werkman received magazines from other foreign precursors in the field of art, culture and literature (the ‘international avant-garde’). This global exchange circuit of magazines was at its peak at the time The Next Call appeared, and Werkman was part of it. That’s remarkable, because Werkman travelled little, and was very much anchored to his location. However, that did not stop him from having a global perspective. This results in a topical exhibit: it shows a man with a penchant for knowledge that extended across borders, who was hungry for outside influences. And that is worthy of a pedestal, especially now. In Groningen, and far beyond.
The new address of GRID Graphic Museum Groningen is Sint Jansstraat 2. The exhibit The Next Call - H.N. Werkman and the international avant-garde will be on display there until 17 January 2016. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, from 10.00 to 17.00. See also GRID Grafisch Museum | Ervaar zelf ons grafisch erfgoed (gridgroningen.nl).
Text: Peter Dicke
Photo: Barbara Makkes