Willem Adriaan van Ravesteijn (Amsterdam, 2 April 1938 – Laren, North Holland, 6 January 2015) was a Dutch

gallerist An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells Work of art, works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and build ...

and

art collector A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...

s in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. He and

Geert van Beijeren Geert van Beijeren (Leeuwarden 20 November 1933 – Slootdorp 6 March 2005) was a Dutch gallerist at Art & Project, curator and art collectors in the Netherlands, known with Adriaan van Ravesteijn for their pioneering role in the field of concept ...

founded the leading Dutch art gallery

Art & Project Art & Project was a leading contemporary art gallery by Geert van Beijeren & Adriaan van Ravesteijn from 1968 to 2001 in Amsterdam and Slootdorp, the Netherlands, as well as an influential art magazine published by the gallery between 1968 and 19 ...

(1968–2001) and publishers of the

art magazine An art magazine is a publication whose main topic is art. They can be in print form, online, or both and may be aimed at different audiences, including galleries, buyers, amateur or professional artists and the general public. Art magazines can be ...

of the same name (1968–1989). During its thirty-year existence, the gallery as well as the magazine made substantial contributions to the Dutch art climate.

Biography

Van Ravesteijn studied architecture at

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

around 1960.Ineke Schwartz,
Kunst ART & Project Wil van kunst geen kaas maken
" ''Trouw''. Meppel, 1990/01/16, p. 15. Geraadpleegd op Delpher op 13-10-2019. He shared and interest in modern art with his friend Geert van Beijeren. In the mid-sixties they were both regular customers of Amsterdam's only contemporary art gallery with an international outlook, the Gallery Swart of Riekje Swart at Keizersgracht. In Van Beijeren's parental home in

Amsterdam-Zuid Amsterdam-Zuid (; ''Amsterdam South'') is a borough (''stadsdeel'') of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The borough was formed in 2010 as a merger of the former boroughs Oud-Zuid and Zuideramstel. The borough has almost 138,000 inhabitants (2013). With 8, ...

in September 1968 the both of them opened their own gallery, named ''

'', were Van Ravesteijn took upon himself the day-to-day running of the gallery. The managed to attract artists, such as

Gilbert & George Gilbert Prousch, sometimes referred to as Gilbert Proesch (born 17 September 1943 in San Martin de Tor, Italy), and George Passmore (born 8 January 1942 in Plymouth, United Kingdom), are two artists who work together as the collaborative art du ...

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

Daniel Buren Daniel Buren (born 25 March 1938, in Boulogne-Billancourt) is a French conceptual artist, painter, and sculptor. He has won numerous awards including the Golden Lion for best pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1986), the International Award for ...

, and

Lawrence Weiner Lawrence Charles Weiner (February 10, 1942December 2, 2021) was an American conceptual artist. He was one of the central figures in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s. His work often took the form of typographic texts, a form of word a ...

. Soon afterwards the opening of the gallery, the both of them managed to publish the first issue of '' Art & Project Bulletin,'' which would continue until 1989. It was in that year that the gallery moved from Amsterdam to

Slootdorp Slootdorp is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Hollands Kroon Hollands Kroon is a municipality located in the Northwest Netherlands. It was created on 1 January 2012, as a merger of four munici ...

, a small village north of Amsterdam. In December 2001 the gallery closed down. In June 2014 Van Ravesteijn was awarded a knighthood in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

Art collection "depot VBVR"

In 1965, Van Beijeren and Van Ravesteijn (VBVR) began putting together a collection of

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

. The history of the collection, which was later dubbed "Depot VBVR", largely coincided with that of the

gallery and magazine. The emphasis lay on

Conceptual Art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

Land Art Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...

and

Minimal Art Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is set out to expose the essence, essentials or identity of a subject through eliminating all non-essential forms, features or conc ...

. Artists that were represented in the collection included Alan Charlton,

Francesco Clemente Francesco Clemente (born 23 March 1952) is an Italian contemporary artist. He has lived at various times in Italy, India and New York City. Some of his work is influenced by the traditional art and culture of India. He has worked in various ar ...

, Adam Colton,

Tony Cragg Sir Anthony Douglas Cragg (born Liverpool 9 April 1949) is an Anglo-German sculptor, resident in Wuppertal, Germany since 1977. Early life and training Tony Cragg was born in Liverpool."Tony Cragg." ''Contemporary Artists''. Farmington Hills, ...

, Ad Dekkers,

Ger van Elk Ger van Elk (9 March 1941 – 17 August 2014) was a Dutch artist who created sculptures, painted photographs, installations and film. His work has been described as being both conceptual art and arte povera. Between 1959 and 1988 he lived and wo ...

Barry Flanagan Barry Flanagan OBE RA (11 January 1941 – 31 August 2009) was an Irish-Welsh sculptor. He is best known for his bronze statues of hares and other animals. Biography Barry Flanagan was born on 11 January 1941 in Prestatyn, North Wales. ...

, Richard Long,

Keith Milow Keith Milow (born 29 December 1945 in London) is a British artist. He grew up in Baldock, Hertfordshire, and lived in New York City (1980–2002) and Amsterdam (2002–2014), now lives in London. He is an abstract sculptor, painter and printmak ...

, Juan Muñoz, Nicholas Pope,

Peter Struycken Peter Struycken (born 5 January 1939 in The Hague) is a Dutch artist, and the brother of actor Carel Struycken. He won the 2012 Heineken Prize for Arts from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of ...

David Tremlett David Tremlett (born 13 February 1945 in St Austell, Cornwall) is an English/Swiss sculptor, installation artist and photographer. He lives and works in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, England. He is married to Laure Genillard who runs an art space in Lo ...

, Richard Venlet,

Carel Visser Carel Nicolaas Visser (3 May 1928 – 1 March 2015) was a Dutch sculptor. He is considered an important representative of Dutch abstract-minimalist constructivism in sculpture. Life and work Visser was born on 3 May 1928 in Papendrecht. From 194 ...

and Leo Vroegindeweij. The largest part of the collection, approximately a thousand works, has been gradually handed over to the

Rijksmuseum Twenthe The Rijksmuseum Twenthe in Enschede, the Netherlands, was founded in 1927 by textile industry Baron Jan Bernard Van Heek. He donated his own private collection and the museum building to the government, thus making it a national museum. The muse ...

in Enschedé. Other Dutch museums that received loans from the Van Beijeren-Van Ravesteijn collection are: the

Gemeentemuseum The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, the

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located at ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

and the

Kröller-Müller Museum The Kröller-Müller Museum () is a national art museum and sculpture garden, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum, founded by art collector Helene Kröller-Müller within the extensive grounds of her ...

Otterlo Otterlo is a village in the municipality of Ede of province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, in or near the Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe. The Kröller-Müller Museum, named after Helene Kröller-Müller, is situated nearby and has the world's ...

. In 2008, after the death of Geert van Beijeren, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

received a collection of some 230 prints, books, posters, photographs and other ephemera from

co-founder Adriaan van Ravesteijn. The gallery's archives and the owners' personal archives are kept at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

(RKD). In 2009 the

staged an exhibition entitled "In & Out of Amsterdam", drawing largely on the Van Ravesteijn-Van Beijeren bequest."In & Out of Amsterdam" exhibition at MoMA
Artdaily.

Gift to the Kröller-Müller Museum

In 2013 Van Ravesteijn donated a significant part of the Art & Project collection to the Kröller-Müller Museum. This donation contained over 200 works of art, mostly sculptural works by Dutch artists such as

, Jos Kruit,

and Leo Vroegindeweij, and international artists as

Carl Andre Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear and grid format sculptures and for the suspected murder of contemporary and wife, Ana Mendieta. His sculptures range from large public art ...

, Adam Colton,

Hamish Fulton Hamish Fulton (born 1946) is an English walking artist. Since 1972 he has only made works based on the experience of walks. He translates his walks into a variety of media, including photography, illustrations, and wall texts. His work is containe ...

, Richard Long, Andrew Lord, Juan Muñoz,

Willy Ørskov Willy Ørskov (21 December 1920 in Aarhus – 12 June 1990 in Helsingør) was a Danish sculptor who is remembered for works created from plastics and inflatable materials. Biography Ørskov's studies at the Valand School of Fine Arts Valand A ...

and Nicholas Pope.

Publications, a selection

* Adriaan van Ravesteijn, ''Andrew Lord: Nieuwe Sculptuur,'' Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede 2003.

References

External links