Erwin Olaf at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
The Stedelijk Museum has opened a large retrospective of Erwin Olaf’s work. Featured alongside the exhibition is the release of the book Erwin Olaf Springveld. Hard werken, hard feesten, which was officially presented at the museum on 11 October. Organized in collaboration with Studio Erwin Olaf, this is the first exhibition of Olaf’s work in the Netherlands since his unexpected passing two years ago.
In addition to showcasing iconic series from Olaf’s oeuvre, the retrospective features never-before-seen works by the multimedia artist, spanning both early and recent periods. Among them is the remarkable Self-Portrait with Lungs (2023), which has not yet been exhibited in a museum, along with pieces created during his illness. The exhibition also highlights the raw, underground edge of Olaf’s work, reflecting his engagement with subversive and activist themes for which he was widely known.
Though Erwin Olaf had long battled pulmonary emphysema, his death last year at the age of 64, following a lung transplant, came as a shock. Widely regarded as one of the Netherlands’ most influential photographers, Olaf was known for his bold aesthetic and meticulously staged images. His work delved into the human form and addressed themes such as sexuality and transience, with a growing focus in later years on vulnerability and isolation. A passionate advocate for equal rights, Olaf championed the dignity of all people; whether elderly individuals, little people, queer communities, people of colour, those with Down syndrome, or the so-called “average” person. This commitment to inclusivity is also a central theme of the exhibition.
The official exhibition page is accessible below:
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ABOUT Erwin Olaf
Erwin Olaf (1959-2023) was known for his diverse practice that centered around society’s marginalized individuals, including people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. In 2019, Olaf became a Knight of the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands after 500 works from his oeuvre were added to the collection of the Rijksmuseum. Taco Dibbits, Rijksmuseum director, called Olaf “one of the most important photographers of the final quarter of the 20th century”.
In 2018, Olaf completed a triptych of monumental photographic and filmic tableaux portraying periods of seismic change in major world cities, and the citizens embraced and othered by their urban progress. Like much of his work, it is contextualized by complex race relations, the devastation of economic divisions, and the complications of sexuality. Olaf maintained an activistic approach to equality throughout his 40-year career after starting out documenting pre-AIDS gay liberation in Amsterdam’s nightlife in the 1980s.
A bold and sometimes controversial approach earned the artist a number of prestigious collaborations, from Vogue and Louis Vuitton, to the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. He served as the official portrait artist for the Dutch royal family in 2017, and designed the national side of the euro coins for King Willem-Alexander in 2013. He was awarded the Netherlands’ prestigious Johannes Vermeer Award, as well as Photographer of the Year at the International Color Awards, and Kunstbeeld magazine’s Dutch Artist of the Year. In 2023, His Majesty the King Willem-Alexander awarded him the Medal of Honor for Art and Science of the Order of the House of Orange.
Erwin Olaf exhibited worldwide, including Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Málaga, Spain; Museu da Imagem e do Som, São Paulo, Brazil; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany; Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA; and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago, Chile. In the spring of 2019, Olaf’s work was the subject of a double exhibition at Kunstmuseum The Hague and The Hague Museum of Photography, as well as a solo exhibition at the Shanghai Center of Photography. In 2021, Erwin Olaf had his first solo exhibition Im Wald at Galerie Ron Mandos and mounted a large survey exhibition at Kunsthalle München, Germany.
Olaf’s work is included in numerous private and public collections, such as the Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk Museum, both in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, France; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, The Netherlands; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, United States; Art Progressive Collection, United States; and the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia.
Visit the artist’s website here.
