Beeld van een verzameling (Picture of a Collection)

25 September  2006

Press announcement concerning Beeld van een verzameling (Picture of a Collection)

From 30 September 2006 to 25 February 2007, the Groninger Museum will present the exhibition Beeld van een verzameling (Picture of a Collection) in the rooms of the Ploeg Pavilion. The exhibition celebrates the 80th birthday of Wim Koops (Groningen, 1925), whose art collection is the central focus of the presentation.

Wim Koops is an outspoken and distinctive man. He is a man of principle, with well-defined beliefs, who possesses a precision that one rarely encounters. This circumspection is reflected in the care by means of which this collection has been created. Besides a number of major paintings by renowned artists such as Jan Altink, Jo van Dijk, Johan Dijkstra, Jan Franken Pzn., Marten Klompien and Jan van der Zee, his collection primarily comprises works on paper. The core of this work consists of, in many cases, unique drawings and prints from the most important artists from the Ploeg Artists’ Association. These works are entrenched in a broad art-historical context. Many prints in the collection originate from European expressionists such as Erich Heckel, Ludwig Meidner, Otto Mueller, Ernst Barlach, Lyonel Feininger and Jozef Cantré, who display stylistic kinship with the work of De Ploeg members.

Besides being a collector of note, Koops was also important to the Groninger Museum due to the various administrative functions he fulfilled. Accordingly, in addition to work from Koops’s collection, the exhibition devotes attention to the paintings that the Groningen Museum acquired thanks to the financial support from the J.B. Scholten Fund and the H.S. Kamminga Fund, the Beringer Hazewinkel Foundation, and paintings from the collection of De Ploeg Foundation.

Book
A Dutch-language book has been published to accompany this exhibition: In het Spoor van De Ploeg – De verzameling Wim Koops (In the Footprints of De Ploeg – The Collection of Wim Koops). The book was made possible by generous financial support from the Beringer Hazewinkel Foundation. The authors are Alma Burema, Doeke Sijens and Han Steenbruggen. Price € 18.50.

Note for the editor
For more information: Josee Selbach, jselbach@groningermuseum.nl, +31 (0)50-3666555
www.groningermuseum.nl, Roel van Venrooij, rvanvenrooij@groningermuseum.nl