The places where Vincent van Gogh lived and worked have captured the imagination of many artists. Marcel van Eeden (The Hague, 1965) is one of those artists.
Marcel van Eeden has been inspired by Van Gogh’s Gasworks (1882), an unconventional and somewhat ominous drawing from the series of twelve cityscapes that Van Gogh made of The Hague.
Especially for this exhibition, Marcel van Eeden made no less than six large charcoal drawings on canvas and a photo reportage, consisting of 27 black-and-white photographs.
Marcel van Eeden, Untitled, 2022, charcoal on canvas
The gas factory in The Hague was a logical choice for Van Eeden: the place where he was born often plays an important role in his work. He also lives around the corner from the original location of the now demolished factory.
With his drawings, Van Eeden always reconstructs places and events from before his birth. In doing so, he tries to draw near to a certain moment when he himself did not exist. In this case, the early spring day in 1882 when Van Gogh recorded the gasworks on the outskirts of The Hague on paper.
Van Eeden on how he works:
‘I take different elements and combine them into a new truth or reality. This may be fiction, but the elements from which the fiction is made are little pieces of truth’.
Video is Dutch spoken with English and Dutch subtitles
Marcel van Eeden (photo: © Lukas Giesler, Karlsruhe)
The new charcoal drawings and photographs have never before been exhibited and are only temporarily on display at the Van Gogh Museum. Moreover, photography is a new medium for Van Eeden; he previously exclusively focused on drawing.
In addition to Van Eeden’s drawings and photographs, the exhibition Gasworks: Van Eeden & Van Gogh also features archival material from March 1882 compiled by himself – ranging from newspaper articles to documents about the factory. And naturally you can also admire Van Gogh’s original drawing and several of his letters from the period, which are rarely exhibited due to their fragility.
The exhibition will subsequently be on display at The Mesdag Collection in The Hague.
Marcel van Eeden, Untitled, 2022, gum bichromate print on paper
