Galley Swart is a former Dutch gallery of Riekje Swart in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

from 1964 to 2000. The gallery promoted contemporary art of varies young art movements, and primarily wanted to arise interest for modern art.Pauline Micheels,
Swart, Hendrika
, in: ''Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland'', 09/01/2018.

History

Foundation and early years

The Galley Swart was founded by Riekje Swart and opened its door in 1964 at the Keizersgracht 478 in a time there were only four or five real galleries in Amsterdam. The gallery came into prominence as promoter of a new group of young Dutch artists, which included Bob Bonies, Ad Dekkers and Peter Struycken and the German Ewerdt Hilgemann. This group opposed the dominant expressionism of the COBRA avant-garde movement, and worked towards a new type of abstract

constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...

," Edward Winters (2014),
Galerie Swart, Amsterdam in the 60s and 70s, and a peculiarly British search for 'Objective Art'
" at ''saturationpoint.org.uk.'' Accessed 2019-10-13. (A

2015-2016) named systemic constructivism and

computer art Computer art is art in which computers play a role in the production or display of the artwork. Such art can be an image, sound, animation, video, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, video game, website, algorithm, performance or gallery installation. Many traditio ...

.
Paspoort van negenendertig Amsterdamse galeries
" ''Algemeen Handelsblad,'' Amsterdam, 1970/05/16, p. 15. In 1970 the gallery moved from the Keizersgracht to the Van Breestraat 23, close to the Stedelijk Museum. The facade was painted black and inside a shoebox 4 by 11 meters with white walls and fluorescent lighting.Arjen Ribbens. "Ik moest het goed vinden," ''NRC Handelsblad.'' 14 april 2000. The next year, in 1971, the other contemporary art gallery in Amsterdam with an international outlook

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 ...

moved to Van Breestraat 18 right opposite the gallery. Beside the white reliefs and plastics she presented the pop art works of

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 wor ...

, conceptual works of

Jan Dibbets Jan Dibbets (born 9 May 1941, in Weert) is an Amsterdam-based Dutch conceptual artist. His work is influenced by mathematics and works mainly with photography. Life and career In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he started as an art teacher at ...

and contemporaries such as

Donald Judd Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism.Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for ...

Richard Paul Lohse Richard Paul Lohse (September 13, 1902 – September 16, 1988) was a Swiss painter and graphic artist and one of the main representatives of the concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid ce ...

François Morellet François Morellet (30 April 1926 – 10 May 2016) was a French contemporary abstract painter, sculptor, and light artist. His early work prefigured minimal art and conceptual art and he played a prominent role in the development of geometrica ...

Robert Ryman Robert Ryman (May 30, 1930February 8, 2019) was an American painter identified with the movements of monochrome painting, minimalism, and conceptual art. He was best known for abstract, white-on-white paintings. He lived and worked in New York ...

Richard Tuttle Richard Dean Tuttle (born July 12, 1941) is an American postminimalist artist known for his small, casual, subtle, intimate works. His art makes use of scale and line. His works span a range of formats, from sculpture, painting, drawing, print ...

. There were new exhibitions every three weeks with unique artworks as well as multiples with prices starting at 40

Dutch guilder The guilder (, ) or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from 1434 until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro. The Dutch name was a Middle Dutch adjective meaning 'golden', and reflects the fact that, when first introduced in 1434, its ...

Turn to Figuration Libre in the late 1970s

In the late 1970s the gallery took a turn to the

Figuration Libre Figuration Libre (, ''Free Figuration'') is a French art movement which began in the 1980s. It is the French equivalent of Bad Painting and Neo-expressionism in America and Europe, Junge Wilde in Germany and Transvanguardia in Italy. Artists in ...

art movement, presenting works of the France Robert Combas and

Hervé di Rosa Hervé Di Rosa (born 1959 in Sète, Hérault) is a French painter. Born in Sète, France, Hervé Di Rosa is a French painter who brings to life unique characters who populate his work in the form of paintings, sculptures, installations and animati ...

, Germans such as

Walter Dahn Walter Dahn (8 October 1954 – 7 November 2024) was a German painter, photographer, and sound artist. He was born in Tönisvorst, North Rhine-Westphalia. He was one of the most important representatives of the Neue Wilde of the 1980s. Dahn taught ...

, Jiri Dokoupil and Milan Kunc. Minimalistic art was traded in for raw works, comic like, full of sex and violence. While Gallery Swart remained at its location, the

gallery in 1973 already moved on to the Willemsparkweg 36 in Amsterdam. With the twist in orientation of the Gallery Swart, some of its elder artists such as

and

left and joint the Art & Project stable.

Last years

The artists of the Figuration Libre movement in the 1980s soon became to successful for the galleries audience. The gallery took another turn and focused on another generation of young artists such as

Bert Boogaard Bert or BERT may refer to: Persons, characters, or animals known as Bert *Bert (name), commonly an abbreviated forename and sometimes a surname *Bert, a character in the poem "Bert the Wombat" by The Wiggles; from their 1992 album ''Here Comes a ...

, Mark Dagley, Cecile van der Heiden, Joost van der Toorn

Wim Delvoye Wim Delvoye (born 1965 in Wervik, West Flanders) is a Belgian neo-conceptual artist widely recognized for combining in his inventive and often shocking projects philosophical ideas, innovative use of materials, and a passion for craftsmanship. ...

and André van de Wijdeven.Arjen Ribbens.
Promotor van een dwarse kunstmentaliteit
" ''NRC Handelsblad.'' 30 september 2008.

Photo Gallery

Some examples of the type of works of the artists presented at Gallery Swart in the Netherlands over the years. File:Twee cirkels Ad Dekkers.jpg, Two circles by Ad Dekkers in Gouda File:Donald Judd installation in Saatchi Gallery.jpg, Donald Judd installation in Saatchi Gallery File:Int. Beeldententoonstelling Sonsbeek 1986 Arnhem binnenkort open Omo 86 van G, Bestanddeelnr 933-6823.jpg, "Omo 86" of Georg Jiri Dokoupil at Sonsbeek 1986. File:Wervik kus.jpg, The Kiss by

, 2000

References

External links

Galerie Reikje
Saturation Point {{DEFAULTSORT:Swart Dutch art dealers Art museums and galleries in Amsterdam