Driven by an insatiable curiosity, Joost Zwagerman has been writing about visual art for decades with a passionate pen. To mark his 50th birthday and the release of a new publication by this self-proclaimed “incurable art lover”, the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag presents a unique exhibition that brings together his love for words and images. In The Space Trembles a Stroke of the Pen, an intriguing dialogue arises between Zwagerman’s poetry and the works of his artist friends, Pieter Bijwaard and Harald Vlugt.
Searching, experimenting, probing, combining, and cutting. Through a close friendship, the artists respond to Joost Zwagerman’s poetry and vice versa. Pieter Bijwaard describes their extraordinary collaboration: “An artist working with a poet is conspicuously unassuming, outspoken without desiring the last word.” Especially for this exhibition, Vlugt created two new collage works in response to Zwagerman’s poems about looking at art. In the showcases, amidst the artworks and poems, the books that Zwagerman has made in collaboration with the two artists over the years are on display.
The result an exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag to celebrate his 50th birthday . The invitation is a classic.
Photo by Koos Breukel
