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The owner of the Dutch art gallery Marie-José van den Hout is describing how the jeweler Dorothea Prühl has its ax. It brings it down to cut exactly the right amount of wood to create one of its necks inspired by the natural world, the end result that resembles a bunch of birds surrounding the neck. Up to 100 efforts can be rejected before prühl is happy with the result, in particular how he sits in the body. Van den Hout says she still gets a sense of excitement in the stomach when she gets a new part from prühl.
Van den Hout is talking from her home in the city of Nijmegen, the oldest in the Netherlands, a few kilometers from the German border. She lives on the “shop”, the culmination of more than 40 years of work that has resulted in the largest contemporary art gallery of the world, the Marzee Gallery (Marzee is a Marie-José name created when she was a child).
It is clear in the way she talks about Prühl that, even at the age of 83, the enthusiasm and passion of Van Den Hout for what she does is unharmed. It also hints at the importance of the relationship between the gallery and the artist who have helped him build the reputation of the Marzee Galerie over the years and represent some of the best manufacturers. (Prühl regarded by many as the “queen” of contemporary art jewelery.)
The gallery is set in an old barn dating from the 17th century. When Van den Hout took over what was then a destruction in the 1990s, it began a restoration project that saw a glass front with 7 meters high, an iron staircase built through its center and high windows replacing the grates in the back to give a view across the Waal River. The result is an impressive four -story structure with 850 square meters of exhibition space.
But this is not a static museum for art jewelery, it is an energetic, dynamic space that mounts four to five temporary exhibitions every two months and is one of the most important supporters of the new talent, with its annual exhibition showing the best graduates from the best jewelry ranks from around the world.
Some of those graduates will have found their job bought by the Gallery for its collection now more than 2,000 pieces won since 1979 forming its archive. This includes the work by some of the most influential artists of the late 20th century jewelery, as well as parts of young young manufacturers.
“I can wear things out of this collection, but I hardly never do because I like it,” says Van den Hout. She gently places her hand on the golden necklace she is wearing, two “strands” of rectangular sections, some with a color pigment, geometric and delicate. “I’m always wearing this necklace. I call them my pearls. I’ve had it I think for 15, 16 years.”
Its manufacturer is Annelies Plantijdt, who has received many awards, including the Marzee Award in 2004. Her work is also in private and public collections around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Another jewelery artist represented by the gallery is Jonathan Boyd, who is also chief of art applied at the Royal College of Art in London. “Despite its massive space and reputation, there is a tremendous sense of proximity and community when you visit (gallery Marzee),” he says. “I think this is beautifully represented in the way they promote the development of artists in the community. They feature artists from the past 50 years, but they also actively promote young manufacturers and jewelers. Creating this wonderful feeling of tradition along with new ones.
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“I was really lucky that Marzee has shown my work in both group and solo exhibition, and I was lucky to be chosen for the student exhibition. I remember I was amazed at the purpose of working on the screen. I was scared and excited by all. It was the first time I have shown my job abroad.
Van den Hous has her very special criteria for choosing the work of the jewelers she is thinking of representing. Most of it is informed by its education – it comes from three generations of gold and jeweler, mainly of ecclesiastical objects. She herself was trained as a gold and jeweler, but then addressed painting and sculpture.
Its guiding principles when choosing ornaments are what it describes as “three hs – head, hand and heart”. The head refers to having a good concept. Hand for the importance of being well. The heart refers to the goals of the jewelery. Basically it is its understanding of the process. “I’ve been creative,” she says. “I grew up in a family of manufacturers. I want things to get very well.”
Of course as a gallery she has to sell as well. Some of its most important clients are collectors from the US “Americans are very good collectors,” she says. “They want to know everything about the parts. They really want to know why and how, etc.”
Tax deductions for American collectors also have a knocking benefit for the distribution and preservation of contemporary art jewelery. “Gathering is also good for their taxes and is the way museums (Americans) get fantastic collections.”
Susan Cummins is a collector of American art art who has a close connection with Gallery Marzee and Van Den Hout. “I admire Marie-José so much that I decided to help produce a book for her, the gallery and Marzee collection,” says Cummins.
The book will be published by Arnoldsche later this year. “Marie-José is full of ideas. She is always attracting new plans for a show or how should work or any other things be presented.”
Cummins appreciates the degree of ambition and dedication of the Marzee Gallery including her graduate annual exhibition, which she says is extremely important for flowering artists.
“From the beginning, the gallery has collected work from all its shows. The collection is actually a historical record of what they have shown over the years. What other gallery had the bright idea to do it and did not actually do it?”
