'Roaring Twenties Rotterdam: Between Josephine Baker and Bombs' opens at Chabot Museum
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, November 22, 2024


'Roaring Twenties Rotterdam: Between Josephine Baker and Bombs' opens at Chabot Museum
Henk Chabot (1894 - 1949), Fire of Rotterdam, 1940, oil on canvas, 120 x 140 cm, Collection Chabot Museum Rotterdam, on longterm loan from the City of Rotterdam.



ROTTERDAM.- The optimistic sound of the Jazz Age was everywhere, women were given the right to vote and there was now radio and film. Exactly hundred years ago the city of Rotterdam went through a unique, thriving period of unparalleled ambition and zest for building. When in 1918 the Great War ended, the Spanish flu (still claiming thousands of Rotterdam victims in 1919) was under control, a new era had started. Roaring Twenties Rotterdam looks at Rotterdam through the eyes of the art-and-anything-else collector Kees Schortemeijer (1894 – 1979). Evoking a city that is no longer there. A city that was physically wiped out and where memory is missing. For this exhibition, currently on view at the Chabot Museum through to March 12, 2023, guest curator Wim Pijbes made a selection from the Schortemeijer collection, opening it up to the public for the first time.

Between Josephine Baker and Bombs

Nowhere else in the country did avant-garde and modernism flourish more abundantly than in “the stepchild of our cities”, to use the words of the main character in Bordewijk’s novel Karakter. “Amsterdam is our national city. Rotterdam our international one.” Bordewijk wrote his famous novel in 1938, and it does full justice to Rotterdam’s assertiveness on the world stage. Every week Holland America Line and Royal Rotterdam Lloyd ships carried thousands of passengers to and from New York and Asia. Katendrecht district was developing into the first Chinatown on the European continent and Rotterdam cinema - operator Abraham Tuschinski gave the audience the opportunity to get acquainted with Josephine Baker. Dirk Hannema, Boymans Museum’s young director, proudly advertised his new art temple in The New York Times as “The best new museum in Europe“. Willem Dudok’s Bijenkorf building became ’the most modern department store in Europe’.

The Coolsingel, the first wide city boulevard in the country, was built, the modernist style Feyenoord Stadium was the biggest football stadium, the Maastunnel the first car tunnel and Rotterdam Zoo opened as the world’s first integrally-designed zoo. In 1923, on the banks of the Meuse, the San Fransisco Warehouse, opened as the largest in the world, and luxurious ocean liners such as the Rotterdam, the Amsterdam and the floating palace Statendam rolled off the Wilton-slopes. Architect Le Corbusier praised Van Nelle’s new transparent glass factory palace: “the most beautiful spectacle of the modern age”. Rotterdam had the highest permitted traffic speed in The Netherlands and “in the meantime the sky-scrapers are working their way up in the former land of Hoboken”, a tourist guide mentioned. On 4 May 1940, between 1.27 and 1.40 pm, the German Air Force instantly wiped out all pre-war optimism in a devastating bombing lasting less than fifteen minutes.

Through the eyes of Schortemeijer




Roaring Twenties Rotterdam looks at Rotterdam of a hundred years ago through the eyes of Kees Schortemeijer (1894 – 1979). At a city that is no longer there. At the city of Rotterdam which has physically been wiped out and where memory is missing. At a city where the demolition worker is held in equally high esteem as the contractor. Where the future always beats the past; the first, the biggest, the tallest! Cornelis ‘Kees’ Schortemeijer is the ideal chronicler of Rotterdam in the interwar period. Collector, designer, composer, filmmaker, and, together with his wife, socially committed and politically active. An independent insurer with a substantial art collection, putting together albums of everything that was of interest to him. They contain thousands of clippings, children’s drawings, advertising material, graphs, films and authentic art work. The first album from 1922 - 1924 was decorated by Henk Chabot; later Chabot Museum was given and now manages the entire collection. This exhibition offers, just as a glimpse, a first acquaintance with the Schortemeijer collection.

Retro-active manifest

With the current redevelopment of the Coolsingel, the renovation of the Maastunnel, plans for a new stadium and Museum Boijmans, the transformation of the former San Francisco warehouse and the publication of the biography of and the renewed interest in Rotterdam composer Willem Pijper (1894 – 1947) going on, now is the time to refocus on Rotterdam a hundred years ago .

Roaring Twenties Rotterdam is a retro-active manifest, about a city more beautiful than it ever could have been. Roaring Twenties Rotterdam has been put together by guest curator Wim Pijbes, emeritus director of the Rijksmuseum, with pieces from the Schortemeijer collection, enriched with loans from the Flip Bool collection, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Museum Rotterdam and private collections. This exhibition takes place in the context of Willem Pijper in Rotterdam.

Chabot Museum Rotterdam

The Chabot Museum for International Expressionism is housed in an icon of the Modern Movement located in the bustling Rotterdam Museum Park. Here, you can experience art in the light, open spaces of one of Rotterdam’s most beautiful villas. Face to face with the monumental works of Henk Chabot (1894-1949), his leading contemporaries and present-day kindred spirits. An intimate art experience at world-class level.










Today's News

October 18, 2022

Artemis Gallery offers Marc Amiguet Schmitt's Pre-Columbian and Hispanic cultural art collection

Gold from Simone Martini to Contemporary Art shines at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Ian McKeever's Henge Paintings now on view at Heather Gaudio Fine Art

'Roaring Twenties Rotterdam: Between Josephine Baker and Bombs' opens at Chabot Museum

Bamigboye, Nigeria's tour-de-force sculptor, claims his fame in the world

An Irish castle to call your own

Tavares Strachan's first exhibition with Perrotin opens in Paris

'My Window review: An out-and-proud trailblazer finds her way

Painting of 18th century cricketers at risk of leaving the UK

Phillips appoints Minhee Suh as Regional Director in South Korea, based in Seoul

Sculpture by the Sea to showcase leading Ukranian artists on Bondi coastal walk

Miller & Miller's announces highlights included in Petroliana & Advertising Auction

RIBA Stirling Prize 2022 winner announced

National Gallery of Art acquires rare drawing by Isack van Ostade

M+ launches online exhibition to celebrate conceptual art pioneer Marcel Duchamp

A posthumous memoir reveals Paul Newman in his own words

Quintessential Lowry leads Bonhams Modern and Irish Art Sale

At 13, she fled the Nazis. At 95, she runs a storied bohemian hotel.

Ambiguity: LaiSun Keane exhibits works by Michal Fargo, Susan Metrican, and Chase Travaille

Studio Museum in Harlem announces artists in residence

Last week to see Greek artist Iliodora Margellos' first solo exhibition at Baert Gallery

Nashville Art Museum to showcase works by prominent 20th Century cartoonist

4 Benefits of Kung Fu Classes

Thai Online Casinos; What You Need To Know Before Playing

The responsibilities of art in the age of social media communication

Erbology Organic Reishi Mushroom Powder




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful