Foreword by Drs. Th. van Velzen
Director Department of Fine Arts 1977
Exhibitions of the work of members of the Haagse Kunstkring have taken place previously – in 1938, in 1941 and in 1951 – at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, a building designed by Circle member H. P. Berlage. Now, almost 25 years after the last exhibition and at a time when the building of the HKK is facing a new future, there is every reason to revisit the place and significance of the Circle. Piquant peculiarity is, that this exhibition is arranged in the halls of the venerable sister society: Pulchri Studio. In this way the ties, which exist in The Hague between the two artist associations and the municipal museum, are particularly underlined.
Albert Vogel, the general chairman and with him the board of the HKK, insisted – rightly – that in this exhibition the history of all sections of the Circle should be highlighted. Ronald de Leeuw has worked diligently to organize the historical material. My thanks also go to all others who have contributed to the composition of the exhibition and the catalog, namely Albert Vogel, Nico Wijnen, Chris Verhoog, Rudolphine Eggink and Peter Führing. Their contribution is a fascinating reflection of the great versatility of the HKK.
Finally, a word of praise for Pulchri member Jan Kuiper, who, despite this diversity, managed to present catalog and exhibition in such a clear manner.
Drs. Th. van Velzen
Director Department of Fine Arts 1977
A word from the chairman
by Albert Vogel
It had been, finally, after the horribly cold winter, a mild promising spring day.
It wasn’t until the evening that a damp sea breeze kicked up that made downtown walkers shudder to save their coat collars.
At the corner of the Buitenhof, gas lights were lit in the Riche café, causing the mirrors and copper edges of the marble tables to begin to shine in the yellow warm light.
About fourteen distinguished gentlemen from The Hague, some in dress coats, all with walking sticks, the gloves thoughtfully removed, gathered around some large tables in a separate part of the room, where Théophile de Bock had called them together to discuss, over a good glass of port, the founding of a Society of Artists. It was the first of May, 1891.
That very evening it was decided, that the Association would be called “the Hague Art Circle.” …..
This “romanticized” beginning of the HKK raises the question of what brought these artists together to express themselves in one association. It was that wonderful Wagnerian ideal of “gathering” within this association practitioners of the most diverse branches of art, in a desire that being together would also contribute to mutual enrichment, even unification of all the arts. However, far from unifying, the retrospective reveals a highly variegated picture.
In compiling this exhibition, moreover, an attempt was made not only to highlight the spectacular, the highlights and firsts that the Kring donated to Dutch or The Hague art life, but attention was also given to those activities that determined the ‘face’ of the association. Precisely by recalling such transient and largely forgotten activities as, for example, Willem van Konijnenburg’s gestenspel ‘Waarheid en chimère’, a symbolic movement play, with sets by Henricus and music by Willem Landré, the dance evenings of Jodjana or the expressionist dances by Grit Hegesa in collaboration with the painter H. F. Bieling, that typical HKK atmosphere has perhaps been approached the closest.
In order to maintain a responsible historical distance, the last twenty years of the Kunstkring event, at least as far as visual art is concerned, were not included in the exhibition. However, important events from those years are indeed relayed in this catalog. For practical and technical reasons, and also to avoid an unbalanced composition, it finally seemed best to take 1957 as the conclusion of the exhibition. In that year the Circle – enabled by a bequest from HKK member Leonora van Bijsterveld – settled in the Denneweg. The multifaceted nature of the HKK is qualitate qua the cause that any attempt to arrive at a “collected work” will eventually have to result in an “anthology.
Albert Vogel
General Chairman
Haagse Kunstkring