Brazilian art in Dutch museums

Several events celebrate Brazilian culture in the Netherlands this Olympic season, including contemporary art exhibitions at Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort, Museum Beelden aan Zee and Mauritshuis in the Hague, all with extensive side programmes.

Kunsthal KadE in Amersfoort represents the work of 35 contemporary Brazilian artists who comment on the economic, political, social and ecological context of Brazil. Their art addresses a wide variety of issues, from the position of indigenous peoples in the north of the country to the water shortages in São Paolo and government economic policies. The exhibition Soft Power. Arte Brasil. takes place from 21 May until 28 August 2016.

Museum Beelden aan Zee presents Brasil, Beleza?! on the Lange Voorhout in the Hague (26 May-21 August 2016) and in its museum in Scheveningen (26 May-2 October 2016) as part of the annual Summer Sculpture Exhibition organized by Beelden aan Zee. The exhibition offers a colourful insight into the vast land of Brazil through a selection of historical, contemporary and newly commissioned works by more than 25 Brazilian artists, many whom have never exhibited before in the Netherlands.

Traditional Mauritshuis exhibits, as an exception to her rule, the work of contemporary Brazilian artist Vik Muniz in the Hague from 9 June until 4 September. The exhibition Vik Muniz: Verso doesn’t show the fronts but the backsides of famous paintings like Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.