Bart Drost

For this 20th edition of plateauKunst, Bart Drost was given an orchard on the Franse Steeg at his disposal. He was delighted with the arrangement, especially when he was assured that he could really go all out here. Specifically for this occasion, he breathed new life into themes and elements from previous exhibitions and projects.

At his graduation exhibition at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (1983), this table occupied a prominent place.A small boat in the sea, stuck in the sand, unable to move, trapped in its own bubble.The table is too high. A tablecloth full of blue swirls. Applied one by one by hand with the brush.At that moment, Drost did not yet know that this visual element would come to play an important role in his artistic practice.Or is it the endless repetition that matters?

The twists, the waves.

Throughout his entire artistic career, this motif recurs time and again in various works and installations by Drost. He paints them on paper, on walls, and on canvas. The sizes vary from 30 x 40 cm to 800 x 1200 cm. The largest canvas was on display in 1988 in the little church of Persingen, the smallest village in the Netherlands. Now he has finally 'cut up' this canvas and sewn seven enormous stuffed animals from the fabric. The inspiration comes from a story his mother read to him as a child about a poor little boy, etcetera. The boy's mother made beautiful stuffed animals for him from his worn-out clothes.

In honor of the twentieth edition of PlateauKunst, Drost has restored a work from 1984 and reproduced it in 20 copies: one for each year.

In 1984, this small table with a tree, titled 'Seascape,' was part of his first solo exhibition, 'Garden for a Young Hero' at Galerie O5'T in Amsterdam. Afterward, the sculpture fell into oblivion and eventually fell apart into pieces. Drost rediscovered parts of it by chance in 2025, when he had to clear out his studio due to a move from Nijmegen to Houthem-St. Gerlach. Those remnants therefore moved with him, and now it is clear why.

In 2000, Bart Drost presented the project Innocent India, the result of a residency in Thrivandrum, India, in 1987, at Museum het Valkhof in Nijmegen.

The 'what's my name' section is now on display in a new form in the orchard on Franse Steeg. Twelve fantasy creatures, assembled from plastic toy animals. Beautiful and funny as they are, they unfortunately have no chance of survival whatsoever. They each sit in their own cage like stuffed animals.

'kunst heeft geen museum nodig (art doesn't need a museum)

plateauKunst is convincing proof of that.

And has been for 20 years.

Hats off!

Back to archive