8 museomag 02 ‘ 2023
A FRESH LOOK AT OUR
STEICHEN COLLECTION
“THE ARTIST’S VIEW” – A NEW SHOW CURATED BY ERWIN OLAF
AND HANS OP DE BEECK
Erwin Olaf and Hans Op de Beeck were invited to curate a selection of photographs for our Steichen Cabinet.
How do you select just 20 photographs from a collection
of almost 200? This is the challenge that the museum
faces every three months when we curate a selection
of prints to show in our Steichen Cabinet; a space
dedicated to the work of the famous Luxembourg-
born photographer. For conservation reasons, we
need to swap out the light-sensitive prints on a regular
basis, some of which date back to the 1910s and 1920s.
Each show is designed to illustrate a different facet of
Steichen’s work, which ranges from portrayals of the
stars of his time to more intimate family portraits, from
lyrical landscapes to rare experiments with colour.
This time round, we invited Dutch photographer
Erwin Olaf and Belgian visual artist Hans Op de Beeck
to guest curate a selection of prints in the Steichen
cabinet for us, offering a new way into this fascinating
collection of historical prints. Staged as part of their
joint exhibition Inspired by Steichen, on show until 11
June, the two artists brought their unique perspective
to bear on our extensive collection. The resulting show
opened on 7 March in presence of one of the guest
curators, Hans Op de Beeck, and our resident fine arts
curator Ruud Priem.
“WE VERY EASILY FOUND
COMMON GROUND”
Interestingly, the two artists were often drawn to the
same pieces when choosing the works for the show.
As Ruud Priem notes, “They each have a unique way of
seeing the world, but they often pick up on the same
things.” This is also evident in the Inspired by Steichen
show, which draws attention to the parallels in Hans Op
de Beeck’s and Erwin Olaf’s practices. As Hans points
out: “We were producing very similar images – the
idea of floating, being adrift and the unknown seemed
to preoccupy us both”. He adds that: “We very easily
found common ground to make the selection for the
Steichen Cabinet”.
©
éric chenal
