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Curatorial Projects (selection)
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (curatorial advice) Daimler Contemporary, Berlin (curatorial advice) Lothar Wolleh Raum, Berlin (curator) Museum Prinsenhof Delft (curator, curatorial advice) Museum & Stadtgalerie Klagenfurt (AT) (curator) Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (curatorial advice) David Zwirner, New York (curatorial advice) Museum Valkhof, Nijmegen (co-curator, curatorial advice) BRUTUS, Rotterdam (curator) Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (co-curator, curatorial advice) Staatliches Museum Schwerin (curatorial advice) Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice (curatorial advice) |
Lectures & Public Events (selection)
André Volten Foundation, Amsterdam (lecture and artist talk) Daimler Contemporary, Berlin (artist talk) Lothar Wolleh Raum, Berlin (lectures and artist talks) MOA, Museum Oud-Amelisweerd, Bunnik (lectures) Museum Prinsenhof Delft (lectures and artist talks) ZERO foundation, Düsseldorf (lectures and artist talks) Museum & Stadtgalerie Klagenfurt (AT) (lecture) Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (lecture) New York Public Library, New York (lecture) David Zwirner, New York (lecture and artist talk) BRUTUS Lab, Rotterdam (lecture and artist talk) Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (lecture) Kunstmuseum, The Hague (lecture) Film & Documentary Jan Henderikse (speaker, concept and research) Henk Peeters. ZERO Revolution, Memphis Film & Television (research and art historical advice) Armando. Het voorval, Memphis Film & Television (research and art historical advice) Piet Zwart. Alles moet nieuw, Memphis Film & Television (art historical advice) Eja Siepman van den Berg (speaker and research) |
In Development - Projects Contemporary Art
Publications
Design Marc Koppen, Eindhoven
English/Dutch edition Paperback, 98 pages BorzoGallery November 2024 |
Ben Akkerman
Edited by Bas de Bruijn, essay Antoon Melissen The development of Akkerman's small body of work occurred as thoughtfully as it did resolutely. Even as a teenager, he drew and painted Twente farms, water mills and landscapes. During the early 1960s, his figuration was characterized by clear lines, again inspired by his love of the Twente landscape and architectural structures. The year 1973 marked the transition to radical abstraction for Akkerman. It was also the year of new contacts, opportunities and the connection to an impressive international context. |
This publication outlines the development of this extraordinary oeuvre. Working in relative isolation, Akkerman thus earned himself a permanent place within the European postwar avant-gardes.
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ISBN 978 3 7533 0731 2
Design Info Offermanns German edition Paperback, 160 pages Walther König Verlag, Cologne October 2024 |
Lucio Fontana. Erwartung
Essays by Luco Massimo Berbero, Beate Eckhoff, Antoon Melissen, Roland Mönig and Maria Villa The Von der Heydt Museum brings Fontana's complex oeuvre to life in all its facets: from figurative to conceptual works, from ceramics to spatial installations. Around 100 works from the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan, as well as from public and private collections provide an insight into the astonishingly experimental and daring work. A highlight of the presentation is the reconstruction of one of his environments, which are little known despite their important role in Fontana's thinking. An exhibition and catalogue in cooperation with the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan. |
ISBN 978 94 6262 582 2
Design Rutger Fuchs, Amsterdam Dutch edition Hardcover, 312 pages Waanders Uitgevers (Zwolle) October 2024 |
Jaap van den Ende
Tegenstelling en samenhang Essays by Judith de Bruijn, Hendrik van Leeuwen, Antoon Melissen and Renée Steenbergen This monumental monograph is dedicated to the Dutch painter Jaap van den Ende (Delft, 1944). In richly illustrated chapters, four authors shed light on the development of a multifaceted oeuvre that spans almost six decades. Starting out in the sixties as a purely abstract, ‘systematic’ painter, figuration reluctantly made its entrance in the mid-eighties. For Van den Ende, these seemingly very different approaches to painting are not mutually exclusive. |
Van den Ende: ‘I have started to feel more and more, to strive more and more to be fully present,’ says Van den Ende. ‘I am not someone who thinks exclusively abstractly. I want to touch everything.’
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Catalogues, monographs & other publications
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Herbert ZANGS
Antoon Melissen (ed.) Expected Sommer 2025 A major monograph on German avant-garde artist Herbert Zangs (1924-2003). With essays by Axel Heil, Peter Iden, Antoon Melissen and Renate Wiehager. KERBER Verlag, Berlin, 288 pages Two editions (English and German) With over 150 images in color. |
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Robert Smit
Antoon Melissen Expected Winter 2024 A monographic publication, to mark Smits's distinction with the Archeometra Lifetime Achievement Award for his jewelry design. With an accompanying exhibition at the Asolo Civic Museum, opening September 2024. Caroline van Hoek Editions, 2024, 96 pages, in color. |
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Oskar Holweck
Catalogue Raisonné Expected Winter 2024 An introductory essay to the catalogue raisonné of German paper artist Oskar Holweck. 2-volume catalog raisonné in a slipcase, published by Walther König Books, Cologne. |
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Theo Niermeijer - Iron Poet
Antoon Melissen Expected Spring 2025 A monographic publication on the versatile 'iron' oeuvre of sculptor, draftsman and graphic artist Theo Niermeijer. Waanders Publishers 96 pages, full color (Dutch edition) In conjunction with the Estate of Theo Niermeijer. |
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Lothar Wolleh. Collabs
Antoon Melissen (ed.) Expected Spring 2025 A publication on the collaborative projects of Lothar Wolleh. Contributions by Edward Kienholz, Blinky Palermo, Otto Piene, Man Ray, Gerhard Richter, Nikki de Saint Phalle, Imi Knoebel a.o. Design: Stephan Holitschke, Büro für Visuelle Identitäten, Munich. |
Design: Stephan Holitschke, Büro für Visuelle Identitäten, München | bilingual edition (Dutch/English) | Swiss binding with embossed print on the cover, 120 pages | Waanders Uitgevers (Zwolle), in cooperation with the Lothar Wolleh Estate, Berlin.
July 2023 Artists' book and catalogue-in-one, published at the occasion of the exhibition 'Lothar Wolleh sees Jan Schoonhoven. Masters in Rhythm and Light', Museum Prinsenhof Delft, 6 July 2023-7 January 2024. |
Lothar Wolleh ziet | sees Jan Schoonhoven
Antoon Melissen Ze moeten zijn opgevallen, de Delftse kunstenaar in zijn onafscheidelijke beige montycoat en de boomlange dandy. In het vroege voorjaar van 1969 doorkruisten Jan Schoonhoven (Delft, 1914-1994) en de Duitse fotograaf Lothar Wolleh (Berlijn, 1930-Londen, 1979) het centrum van Delft. Schoonhoven toonde de fotograaf de favoriete plekken van zijn geboortestad, gevels langs de gracht, grootse pleinen en donkere stegen. Met zijn maagdelijk witte reliëfs van papier en karton verwierf Nul-kunstenaar Jan Schoonhoven begin jaren zestig wereldfaam. De Duitse fotograaf Lothar Wolleh, bekend van zijn kunstenaarsportretten, was regelmatig bij de Schoonhovens te gast. |
In Delft liet Schoonhoven de fotograaf zien wat hem aan de stad fascineerde en hoe alledaagse vormen werden ‘vertaald’ naar reliëfs en tekeningen. Wollehs foto’s tonen ons Jan Schoonhoven zoals we hem niet eerder zagen: thuis met bevriende kunstenaars, aan het werk en tijdens roerige openingen van zijn tentoonstellingen.
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ISBN 978-3-7356-0436-1
Design Harald Slaterus, Arnhem Bilingual edition (German/English) Hardcover, 96 pages Waanders Uitgevers (Zwolle) April 2022 |
Caroline Hofman
The Aesthetics of Silence Antoon Melissen (ed.) In the summer of 2019 Caroline Hofman sent me a series of snapshots of her studio in Aachen. The photographs reflect everyday reality, works in progress and reflections and shadows on her glass worktop. Hofman labelled these photos ‘Before’, to preclude any misunderstanding. For rather than show works of art as ‘end results’, at most they provide an impression of the workspace and the work process. And yet these photos are quite revealing. It was, after all, the artist’s gaze that documented this ‘reality’ of the studio. Rhythm, structure and the expressive qualities of light and shadow: Hofman’s snapshots feature characteristics that also define her work in a significant way. |
Hofman works with paper and card- board, or to put it a better way, she speculates on the possibilities that these ostensibly simple materials can offer her. In her three- dimensional compositions, she operates along the fault line between alienation and recognition. Abstract structures, but also feathers, scaffoldings, chairs and wickerwork cut out of paper and cardboard: Hofman opens our eyes to the unexpected context and strong graphic qualities of the familiar and the ordinary.
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ISBN 978-3-7356-0769-0
Design Stephan Holitschke, Büro für Visuelle Identitäten, Munich Bilingual edition (German/English) Softcover, two books in a cassette. 64 / 80 pages Kerber Verlag (Bielefeld/Berlin) April 2021 |
Joseph Beuys - Lothar Wolleh
The Unterwasserbuch Project Antoon Melissen (ed.) In January 1971, Joseph Beuys (Krefeld, 1921–Düsseldorf, 1986) had his first museum exhibition outside the German-speaking world, at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Photographer Lothar Wolleh accompanied Beuys to Stockholm and documented the setting up of this exhibition. These photos formed the basis of an exceptional project, an artist’s book composed under both their names that ultimately attained fame under the title Unterwasserbuch (Underwater Book). |
This publication contains the re-edition of this artist’s book, the first part of this cassette. The second part of this cassette reconstructs the rich, wondrous history of ‘Project Unterwasserbuch’ with previously unpublished photographs, sketches and correspondence. Together, these books are an imprint of the creative discourse of the 1970s, but equally tell the story of two kindred spirits.
Visit: www.lothar-wolleh.com Presented on: 
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ISBN 978-94-6208-500-8 (Dutch edition)
ISBN 978-94-6208-505-3 (English edition) Design Haller Brun, Amsterdam Softcover, 166 pages nai010 uitgevers (Rotterdam) February 2019 |
Manzoni in Holland
Colin Huizing (ed.) As one of the greatest pioneers of international conceptual art, Italian artist Piero Manzoni (1933-1963) maintained strong ties with the Netherlands. The unlocking of Manzoni's intensive correspondence with Rotterdam gallery owner Hans Sonnenberg has revealed the extent of Manzoni's influence on the Dutch postwar avant-garde. Manzoni's work was of great influence on artists associated with the Dutch Nul-group and the international ZERO-movement. This book tells the untold story of Piero Manzoni's special relationship with the Netherlands. |
With contributions by Colin Huizing, Julia Mullié and Antoon Melissen.
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ISBN 978-3-7356-0438
Design Scherpontwerp, Eindhoven Bilingual edition (German/English) softcover, 288 pages Kerber Verlag (Bielefeld/Berlin) September 2018 |
Jan Henderikse - In Transit
Antoon Melissen This major monograph pays homage to Dutch artist Jan Henderikse (Delft, 1937), one of the key players in European art after 1960. Four richly illustrated chapters shed light on his multi-form oeuvre – and on the difficulty of pigeonholing the artist. Assemblages and readymades, photography, film, artist's books and installation art: Henderikse has always been an artist 'in between', flirting with the purity of the ZERO movement, with the object-related imagery of the Nouveaux Réalistes, with Pop Art and with Fluxus. |
This monograph is an important addition to the history of the Dutch Nul group and ZERO. New material from Jan and Idi Henderikse's personal archive make this publication an essential read.
Published in conjunction with the Jan Henderikse Foundation. Part of this publication is a signed artwork in a limited edition. |
ISBN 978-3-7356-0436-1
Design Loek Kemming, Office for Design Bilingual edition (German/English) Hardcover, 192 pages Kerber Verlag (Bielefeld/Berlin) August 2018 |
Riki Mijling. Void/Volume
Antoon Melissen (ed.) It was in the winter of 2016, that the newly formed Riki Mijling Foundation announced its plans to support a monographic publication on Riki Mijling. In his essay, Melissen traces the origin of Mijling’s work, placing it in a context of predecessors and contemporaries. His essay will link the development of her oeuvre to influential exhibitions, biennales and publications from the mid-1970s onwards. Thus, this essay offers more than an insight in the topicality of |
Riki Mijling’s oeuvre alone: it also mirrors a changing cultural landscape which, since the 1970s, has become increasingly transboundary and multi-disciplinary.
Peter Lodermeyer’s essay will put special emphasis on the rich tradition of European minimalist tendencies, and the meaning of Mijling’s work in relation to contemporary notions of 'minimalism' and 'non-objectivity'. This book is also available as a collectors edition with an original artwork. See: www.rikimijling-foundation.com |
ISBN 978-94-6208-248-9 (Dutch edition)
ISBN 978-94-6208-249-6 (English edition) Design Studio Joost Grootens Hardcover, 192 pages nai010 uitgevers (Rotterdam) December 2015 |
Awarded 'Best Dutch Book Designs 2015'
Jan Schoonhoven Antoon Melissen For Almost 40 years, Jan J. Schoonhoven worked on his highly distinctive monochrome white reliefs, made of papier-mâché, paper and cardboard. The central theme of this monograph is the development op Schoonhoven's oeuvre, from the earliest gouaches in the late 1930s to the last signed relief, made in the early 1990s. This monograph includes a thorough discussion of Schoonhoven's significance in the international ZERO movement. |
Attention to the contexts in which he made his drawings and reliefs also offers a new perspective on Schoonhovens live and artistic career. A selection of Schoonhoven's writings on art from the years 1958-1975 convey an intimate sense of the artist's ideas and methods.
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ISBN 978-94-6208-185-7 (Dutch edition)
ISBN 978-94-6208-186-4 (English edition) Design Vanessa van Dam Hardcover, 272 pages nai010 uitgevers (Rotterdam) April 2015 |
Armando. Between Knowing and Understanding
Antoon Melissen (ed., with Yvonne Ploum) This monumental monograph is devoted to one of the most important post-war Dutch artists. Armando (*1929) has worked for decades on an oeuvre exploring such themes as melancholy, power, powerlessness and the uneasy fusion of beauty and evil. Since the late 1950s, he has been one of a vanguard of artistic innovators as an artist, poet and writer, and more recently as a maker of television and theatre. |
With a selection of more than 250 works and four lavishly illustrated essays, this book presents an overview of Armando’s oeuvre - from the early Informal years, his association with the international ZERO movement, and developments of later years. For the first time, the full breadth of a unique, eclectic artistic career spanning six decades is revealed.
Published in conjunction with MOA, Museum Oud Amelisweerd/Collectie Armando, Bunnik (the Netherlands). |
ISBN 978-9491-775-680
Design Studio Luc Derycke Hardcover, 532 pages Asamer Press (Ghent) October 2015 |
The Artist as Curator. Collaborative Initiatives in the International ZERO Movement
Tiziana Caianiello and Tijs Visser (eds.) Between the late 1950s and the mid-1960s, a new artistic movement emerged in Europe that came to be known under the name ZERO, as artists from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Switzerland sought new ways to collaborate and create new platform for their activities. This book focuses on the main projects realized by artists from the ZERO context and is the first comprehensive study on this subject. |
This book presents the result of several years of collaboration by an international group of scholars put together by the ZERO foundation.
With contributions by Tiziana Caianiello, Stefan Geiger, Antje von Graevenitz, Beate Kemfert, Serge Lemoine, Antoon Melissen, Andres Pardey, Johan Pas, Francesca Pola, Dirk Pörschmann, Tina Rivers Ryan, Ulrike Schmitt, Caroline de Westenholz and Thekla Zell. Published in conjunction with the ZERO foundation, Düsseldorf. |
ISBN 978-3-86335-698-9 (Dutch edition)
ISBN 978-3-86335-697-2 (German edition) Design Mevis en Van Deursen Softcover, 560 pages Accompanying the exhibition at Museum Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin/Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2015 Walter König Books (Cologne) April 2015 |
ZERO
Dirk Pörschmann and Margriet Schavemaker (eds.) Over 50 years after the founding of the ZERO movement thtis most comprehensive publication ever is devoted not only to the first founding artists Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker, nor even just to these international artists who were close to ZERO such as Yves Klein and Lucio Fontana, but also to such forgotten artists as Hermann Goepfert, Oskar Holweck or Hans Salentin. This catalogue accompanies the travelling ZERO-exhibition at Museum Gropius Bau, Berlin, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. |
The 45 artists selected, including 11 from Germany, reflect the ideas of the ZERO founders, both in a formal and a conceptual sense. This publication includes an impressive amount of documentation on historical exhibitions, events, artists' writings and magazines.
With essays by Daniel Birnbaum, Antoon Melissen, Johan Pas, Francesca Pola, Dirk Pörschmann, Margriet Schavemaker, Mattijs Visser, and Thekla Zell. |
ISBN 978-88-317-1888-2 (Italian edition)
ISBN 978-88-317-1918-6 (English edition) Softcover, 648 pages, accompanying the exhibition at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, 2014-2015. Marsilio Editore (Venice) September 2014 |
AZIMUT|H. Continuity and Newness
Luca Massimo Barbero (ed.) Autumn 2014, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection celebrated the neo-avant-gardes with an exhibition dedicated to Azimut/h, the gallery and the review founded in 1959 by Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani. The exhibition set out to reconstruct the fundamental role played by Azimuth/h and by the revolutionary new generation of creative spirits that it brought together, in the panorama of experimental and new art in Italy and Europe at that time. |
With a full selection of works of art but also printed and manuscript documentation, some unpublished, this exhibition will bring to life this short but intense story characteristic of the internationalization of contemporary art in the period following World War II.
With essays by Luca Massimo Barbero, Flaminio Gualdoni, Antoon Melissen, Francesca Pola, and Federico Sardella. |
ISBN 978-90-5662-859-8 (Dutch edition)
ISBN 978-90-5662-860-4 (English edition) Design Esther de Vries, Niessen & de Vries, Amsterdam Hardcover, 516 pages nai010 uitgevers (Rotterdam) Publcation date: April 2012 |
Auke de Vries. Sculptures, Drawings and Work in Public Space
Antoon Melissen (ed., with Esther de Vries) Dutch artist Auke de Vries (b. 1937) is best known for the elegant and whimsical sculptures he constructs in public space, both in the Netherlands and around the world. His striking permanent sculptures such as the Maasbeeld in Rotterdam, the Hollands Spoor Station sculpture in The Hague, the work in the pond of the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam, on the roof of the Daimler-Chrysler Building in Berlin, and many projects in cities such as Istanbul, Johannesburg, Aberdeen, Frankfurt make him one of the most well-known artists of work in public space. |
Less well-known is that De Vries’s artistic spectrum extends far beyond sculpture, ranging from tiny sketches to large-scale spatial design studies. In 2012 De Vries turns 75 and he has been an artist over 50 years. This book presents, for the first time, an overview of the oeuvre De Vries has produced over the course of more than 50 years.
With essays by Rudi Fuchs, Antoon Melissen and Renate Wiehager. |
ISBN 978-3-7757-2597-2
Design superfantastic_berlin Bilingual edition (English/German) Hardcover, 311 pages Hatje Lantz Verlag (Ostfildern) Publication date: April 2010 |
Jan Henderikse. Acheiropoieta
Renate Wiehager and Antoon Melissen (eds.) Jan Henderikse (*1937) called a 1996 exhibition of his ready-mades Acheiropoieta (literally "not handmade”), an antique term for a particular type of icon that originates miraculously. As early as 1961–62, the artist’s works anticipated major contemporary trends in art, employing everyday materials in the tradition of the ready-made, assemblage and montage, mirroring the purism of the ZERO movement, but echoing Nouveau Réalismea nd Pop Art at the same time. |
Henderikse augmented his material basis in the seventies and eighties with conceptual artists’ books, photographic series, and installations comprising “ready-found” photographic material and films.
This monograph lists major works from public and private collections for the first time, thus enabling renewed access to the artist’s complex multimedia oeuvre. |
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Other publications (a selection)
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