2008: Radek, how did the first exhibition come about?

Radek: Actually, the first edition of Best of Graduates was in 2005, under the name of Paraat. I started the exhibition Paraat at the Veemvloer, where it was intended as a collaborative project. It was about young artists in Amsterdam so it had to have an impact, this way they could join forces. I visited all the art academies regularly before 2005 and I found it remarkable that there were so many academies spread out across the Netherlands. Everything that took place outside the big cities was not really considered interesting at the time. No one came to the graduation shows and I thought that was a shame. That’s how I came up with the idea to bring the best artists from all over the country together in Amsterdam along with the artists who graduated from the better-known art academies.

After a few editions, I thought, all nice and well, but what do these artists actually get out of it? I considered it to be much more interesting for these young artists to work with the commercial segments of the art world. I already knew Ron Mandos from Rotterdam and I approached him, because he had always been interested in young artists. So, in 2008 we made an exhibition together for the first time. In that first year of collaboration, the title was Paraat #4 (Best of Graduates). A year later I left the Veemvloer and since then the title has been Best of Graduates. The 2008 edition took place in the gallery as well as in the Veemvloer. That year we made a nice connection between the gallery on the Prinsengracht and the Veemvloer with a boat. It was a great festive displacement. 

2008: Ron, how did you know Radek? Why did you feel it was important to bring Best of Graduates to the gallery?

Ron: At that time, I had the gallery on the Prinsengracht and we were closed for the whole month of August. The rental costs were very high and in August of course a lot of people are on vacation so it’s hard to choose what to show at the gallery. Especially since I’ve had a passion for young artists for years and I’ve always attended graduation shows, I thought this would be a good opportunity to offer them a platform here on the canal. That’s when I started to look into it, I think it was in 2006. I knew that Radek was the director of the Veemvloer and organized his exhibition Paraat there. Radek also came to the gallery sometimes, we knew each other a little bit. So, I went to see him to find out if we could do something together. That resulted in the Best of Graduates. I remember that for the first opening we had rented a big boat, so everyone could watch the graduation show here at the gallery and then take the boat to the Veemvloer to see Radek’s selection.

Radek: We had discussed in advance who did what and we divided it up. In one place more of Ron’s favorites and in the other more of mine. 

Ron: It was a great success from the beginning and it has also grown into a happening that is now almost indispensable. We receive a lot of appreciation for it as well – the fact that we ended up with a more or less non-commercial show and promote young artists so enormously. And people should realize that you can also support younger artists through a purchase. There have also often been major collectors, such as Carla and Hugo Brown and the family Drake. They are then also mentioned on their CV, which is of course very nice.

2012: Radek, what is so special about Best of Graduates?

Radek: On the one hand, of course, the exhibition itself. But there is also an important part that precedes it: traveling along all the graduation shows. It is always a joy for me to visit all these different exhibitions, compare them and discover all the differences. For me personally, that is a very important part of the Best of Graduates. In a period like this, you see so much, that you can really keep a very close eye on the development of young artists. It happens very often that you see something at an exhibition a few years later that you came across before at one of the graduation shows. That’s what makes this exhibition so special.

It is also fun to see how the artists of Best of Graduates end up after the exhibition. Often their first year is full of projects and adventures, because it’s still so close to graduation. But then suddenly there’s nothing happening anymore and they have to start making money regardless. Then some artists disappear for a while and sometimes they return into the spotlight. A good example is Matea Bakula, a sculptress, she is doing very well now. When I saw her at the academy, she already had a great sense of material. She made a huge cube of Styrofoam with a sort of tub on top filled with caramel. She had poured that in there and it then dried up. That was very special at the time, no one did something like that. It was a very cool piece of work for that time. She still makes work like that. It makes me very proud to see that such an artist is still doing so well.

2013: How does each year’s selection come about?

Radek: An important part of the selection is visiting the graduation shows at eleven different art academies in the Netherlands. It is fantastic to see so many young artists together in such a short period of time. You see so much that you can really keep a close eye on the development of young artists. Based on a large selection of interesting artists, we then get around the table and choose the very best. Some important selection criteria are innovation, the story behind the work, and the craft or the workmanship of their product.

Ron: I am very happy with Radek’s devotion, his passion, time and energy he puts into visiting the graduation shows. I don’t have the amount of time to visit all academies. I do, of course, have wonderful conversations with artists, but I can’t speak to 300 artists. Radek does, and together we come up with a solid rationale for the selection. We’d be sitting with Czech liquors until midnight selecting all the different artists.

2019: How did the collaboration with Museum Voorlinden come about and what does it look like? 

Radek: I mentioned earlier the step we took from exhibiting at an artists’ initiative to working with a commercial gallery. After ten years we asked ourselves, what could be the next step? That turned out to be the step from the commercial gallery to the museum world. We then looked for places where we could do a recap exhibition of Best of Graduates, which is still one of our ambitions.. 

Ron: Initially, I always bought a work from the winner for my own collection. But then we decided that it is much better for an artist if the work would go to a public collection. We wanted to find a place for it. Museum Voorlinden coincidentally opened at the same time and they were very enthusiastic about our program. Together with the museum we came up with the idea that a work of Young Blood Award winner should be included in their permanent collection. Since then, the museum decides who the winner is. It is of course very nice for a young artist to have their work included in a permanent collection. My own dream is that in twenty-five years’ time I can visit an exhibition at Museum Voorlinden with all the winners of the Young Blood Award.

2020: How did you come up with the idea of creating the Residency Award?

Ron: We believe that mentoring young artists is very important. It is not always easy for newly graduated artists to support themselves. You come from the safe environment of the academy and then you suddenly have to do everything by yourself. You need to rent a studio for a lot of money which is not possible for everyone.

We have built this program to support the artists on the one hand, with, for example, advice from people in the field. But we also ensure that they can exchange ideas with people from the financial world or from the field of psychology. These are very important subjects for young artists to think about.

Radek: It’s also good to see it in a broader context. At the academies they are increasingly aware of the support that young artists need so shortly after graduating. You see that these kinds of residencies and other awards are becoming more common there too.