BK Lecture: Art commissioned by the national government

Feb. 11, 10:30 a.m., by Gijs Frieling, visual arts advisor to the Rijksbouwmeester.

Online BK Lecture by Gijs Frieling

Registration for the lecture is not possible as of February 11.

The lecture will be streamed live and the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions afterwards. We will give the first 70 subscribers to BKinformatie who purchase a ticket to the lecture free admission to Art Rotterdam in the Van Nelle Fabriek (May 2022). Tickets are still available.

The visual arts percentage scheme for government buildings has existed since 1951. It was established at the instigation of former government architect Gijsbert Friedhoff. Friedhoff had commissioned an extensive program of allegorical wall works in the four stairwells of the ministry, including the ministry of agriculture and fisheries on Bezuidenhoutseweg in The Hague, which he had designed. Each department had been assigned specific subjects and different wall techniques had been established for each stairwell: fresco, mosaic and graffito (layered and scratched-out stucco). The period of reconstruction was a rewarding time for this initiative. The central government was building a lot and there was an atmosphere of idealism that called for imagination. The symbolic and unambiguous imagery of that time strikes us as strangely naive. For example, all police stations (of which many dozens were built in the 1950s and 1960s) were invariably commissioned to make a bronze rooster. The rooster symbolized vigilance, something that was supposed to be universally understood.

Meanwhile, society and art have undergone various developments. The public's trust in the government has undergone several crises, and in art the autonomy and authorship of artists has come increasingly to the fore. As a result, as early as the 1980s it became clear that the commissions carried out under the Visual Arts percentage scheme could often only be understood in the context of the artist's oeuvre, and that the relationship to the building or the government department that sits there is only that of a coat rack or podium. Among the works realized during this period were those by artists from the Arnhem School. In some cases these far-reaching spatial designs are among the most ambitious works carried out under the percentage scheme, but at the same time it is actually impossible to determine what these works of art represent, let alone to what extent they represent the central government. 

At the same time, it is inimitable what these artworks represent, let alone to what extent they represent the central government

Then, from the beginning of this century, we regularly see artists adopt a reflective attitude and critically approach the governmental organizations for which they make commissions. The involvement with the commissioner was therefore once again considerable, but not from a universally and communally conceived ideal of citizen/artist and government as in the 1950s. 

A good example is Jill Magid's work for the AIVD (General Intelligence and Security Service). The AIVD had written in its mission statement, among other things, that it wanted to be a modern transparent organization. Magid then proposed to interview secret agents anonymously and publish these interviews in a book. The art commission (in which the AIVD was of course represented) responded enthusiastically, but demanded that it be allowed to inspect and edit the manuscripts before publication in connection with the security of the country and its employees. The manuscript that Magid eventually received back from the AIVD turned out to have more than half of its text removed. The artist then decided not to publish it but to exhibit the edited copy in a showcase in her exhibition at Tate Modern to which she had been invited in the meantime. 

The central government built a lot and there was an atmosphere of idealism that demanded imagination

We are currently in a situation where the autonomy of artists in society is becoming less obvious. Artists who see a commission from the government solely as an opportunity to string a valuable pearl on the chain of their own oeuvre are no longer easily selected. Designers are also increasingly being invited to make a work as part of the percentage scheme. This is of course related to developments in the art field, where the line between artists and designers is blurring, but I also see it as a sign of a certain impatience with artists who only want to deal with their own story. 

In addition to his role as advisor to the Chief Government Architect, he is Gijs Frieling muralist. He was educated at the Gerrit Rietveldacademie and the Rijksakademie. From 2006 to 2010 he was director and chief curator of artists' initiative W139 in Amsterdam. For his work he received, among others, the Royal Prize for Painting and the Cobra Art Prize. As a teacher and guest lecturer, he has been affiliated with various academies and post-academic institutions and holds various administrative positions in the arts field. 

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