Noise! Frans Hals, Otherwise at Frans Hals Museum

Artists: Anna-Sophie Berger, Vittorio Brodmann, Xinyi Cheng, Stephan Dillemuth, Nicole Eisenman, Hamishi Farah, Justin John Greene, Ivy Haldeman, Tom Humphreys, Jacqueline De Jong, Özgür Kar, Kiki Kogelnik, Sarah Lucas, Perri MacKenzie, Alan Michael, Jill Mulleady, Simphiwe Ndzube, Josip Novosel, HC Playner, Pilvi Takala, Siebren Versteeg, Gillian Wearing

Exhibition title: Noise! Frans Hals, Otherwise

Curated by: Melanie Bühler

Venue: Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands

Date: September 29, 2018 – June 16, 2019

Photography: all images courtesy of the artists and Frans Hals Museum

In its Hal location on Haarlem’s Grote Markt, the refurbished Frans Hals Museum proudly presents the international group exhibition Noise! Frans Hals, Otherwise (September 29, 2018–January 27, 2019).

Frans Hals broke the representational conventions of portraiture. Reviving Hals’ actions against the protocols of his time, the exhibition brings together contemporary artworks that similarly play with, and speculate on, the notion of portraiture and its meaning today.

Frans Hals, Otherwise

The 17th century painter Frans Hals had a unique approach to portraiture. His paintings convey a painterly technique that was rougher, sketchier and freer than that of his contemporaries, suggesting an unprecedented sense of liveliness. Indeed, Hals’ innovation does not only pertain to the style of his paintings, but also to their content. As well as depicting wealthy members of society, Hals also introduced people of lower social standings into his portrait paintings—such as a gypsy girl, a person who was mentally ill, fisher children. With his innovative approach, Hals thus posed the question anew of who could become the subject of a portrait, and how they could be depicted.

Noise!

Taking these aspects of Hals’ work as points of departure, the exhibition Noise! Frans Hals, Otherwise brings together contemporary artworks that similarly challenge the notion of portraiture. Across four chapters—Liveliness, Expectations, Infiltration and Noise—the relation of these works to topics such as representation, identity and agency within contemporary visual culture is developed, while the works themselves, along with selected works by Hals, grow progressively noisier. By drawing on caricature, irony and the grotesque, and by conjuring images both utopian and dystopian, these artists explore the formal, cultural and political possibilities of portraiture in our time, marked by deepening inequalities and a return to forcefully demarcated identities.

In an age of social media—with its profile pictures and selfies—the question as to how we visually represent ourselves is inherently bound to anything we say online. Speaking up, moreover, has become an imperative in today’s polarised climate, which demands we draw clear lines in the sand as we weaponise what we find most distinctive about ourselves. In this climate, the notions of identity and its representation have once again taken centre stage. Reflecting on this condition, the exhibition explores the possibilities and forms of portraiture that go against the grain of our time by questioning entrenched expectations, habits and assumptions.

With:

Anna-Sophie Berger (Austria), Vittorio Brodmann (Switzerland), Xinyi Cheng (China), Stephan Dillemuth (Germany), Nicole Eisenman (USA), Hamishi Farah (Australia), Justin John Greene (USA), Ivy Haldeman (USA), Tom Humphreys (Great Britain), Jacqueline De Jong (Netherlands), Özgür Kar (Turkey), Kiki Kogelnik (Austria), Sarah Lucas (Great Britain), Perri MacKenzie (Great Britain), Alan Michael (Great Britain), Jill Mulleady (Uruguay), Simphiwe Ndzube (Zambia), Josip Novosel (Croatia), HC Playner (Austria), Pilvi Takala (Finland), Siebren Versteeg (Netherlands) and Gillian Wearing (Great Britain).

The exhibition Noise! is curated by Melanie Bühler. This is her first exhibition since she assumed her function as contemporary art curator at the Frans Hals Museum. In 2016 the museum presented Inflected Objects #2 Circulation – Mise en Séance, an exhibition Bühler curated for the museum as a guest curator.

Frans Hals and the Moderns

Concurrently with Noise! Frans Hals, Otherwise, the ground-breaking exhibition Frans Hals and the Moderns. Hals meets Manet, Singer Sargent, Van Gogh will be on view at Frans Hals Museum’s Hof location. This blockbuster exhibition shows Frans Hals’ immense impact on some of the most influential painters of the 19th century.

Noise! Frans Hals, Otherwise, Installation View, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem 2018, image: Gert Jan van Rooij

Justin John Greene, Schmoozers, 2017, 127 x 106,7 cm, Courtesy of the artist, Photo: the artist

Justin John Greene, We Eat Too Much, 2018, 182,9 x121,9 cm

Hamishi Farah, George, 2017, 88 X 62,5 cm, Courtesy the artist & Arcadia Missa, photo: Tim Bowditch

Hamishi Farah, Ma, 2017, 101,5 X 76 cm, Courtesy the artist & Arcadia Missa, photo: Tim Bowditch

Vittorio Brodmann, The head is quite light, the bottom wears heavily, 2013, 60 X 80 cm, Courtesy Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich

Vittorio Brodmann, Knot in Tongue, 2016, 170 x 120 cm, Courtesy Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich

Jacqueline de Jong, After The War, 1995—1996, 180 x 212,5 cm, Photo: L. Kolkena

Jacqueline de Jong, Pastaggio, 1986, 65 X 205 cm, Courtesy the artist & Durst Britt & Mayhew

Perri MacKenzie, Smoking, 2017, 72 x 62 cm, Photo: Iztok Klanéar

Perri MacKenzie, Untitled, 2017, 120 x 130 cm, Photo: Iztok Klanéar

Ivy Haldeman, Sleeping Figure, Face Turned, Fingers Touch Upper Torso, Open Book, 2017, 213,4 x 147,3 cm, Photo: the artist

Ivy Haldeman, Colossus, Hand on Shin, Foot Slides Into Shoe (Shoe), 2017, 213,4 x 152,4 cm, Courtesy the Koven Collection

Xinyi Cheng, Pomegranate, 2017, 40 x 50 cm, Courtesy Balice Hertling, Paris

Stephan Dillemuth, AwShucks, Marsyas, 2017, 40 x 130 x 55 cm, photo: Simon Vogel

Stephan Dillemuth, Sad presentiments ofwhat must come to pass. // {with head), 2017, 190 X 80 x 80 cm, photo: Simon Vogel

Anna-Sophie Berger, 25June, 2015, 40 x 30 cm, Courtesy the artist & Emanuel Layr Vienna

Nicole Eisenman, Brooklyn Biergarten II, 2008, 165 x 208,5 cm, Valeria & Gregorio Napoleone Collection, London

Josip Novosel, Urban Getty, 2018, 50 X 70 cm, photo: Hrvoie Franiicv

HC Playner, Hysteria Lieder, 2017, 73 X 55 cm, Collection of Burschenschatt Hysteria, Vienna, photo: Gunnar Meier

Jill Mulleady, Mother, 2017, 61 x 46 cm, Courtesy the artist & Freedman Fitzpatrick Gallery, Paris