CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

To mark CODART’s 25th anniversary in 2023, the Friends of CODART Foundation made a donation to the Cultuurfonds, with which to finance an extra Curators’ Stipend. The stipend was awarded to the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, to contribute to a research and exhibition project on the Utrecht artist Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656). It enabled the museum to appoint Iris Blokker as a junior curator of Old Masters for seven months (February to September 2024), to assist and support the senior curator Liesbeth Helmus. Blokker had previously worked as a curator in training at the Centraal Museum, as part of her master’s degree in Curating Art and Cultures at the University of Amsterdam. She is also a fellow at the Allard Pierson Museum, where she is researching the print publisher Anna Beek (1657-1717). In June, Liesbeth and Iris spoke to CODART about the Stipend, their collaboration, and the challenges facing the curator’s profession.

Could you tell us a little about the research and exhibition project?

Liesbeth Helmus: “Every three years I organize a major exhibition for the Centraal Museum on a subject relating to its collection. After Utrecht, Caravaggio, and Europe, I carried out a project on the Bentvueghels. Now I’m focusing on Gerard van Honthorst. It’s the first major retrospective on this painter’s work in the world – which is actually quite strange. After all, he was the most important painter from the Northern Netherlands in the early decades of the seventeenth century. A large oeuvre catalogue is available, as well as numerous other publications about him and his work, but no comprehensive study has yet been devoted to him. To accompany the exhibition, I am writing a book about his life and work, based on a number of case studies. It is fantastic that Iris is now able to support me in this work, thanks to the Curators Stipend from the Cultuurfonds, financed by the Friends of CODART.”

How did you decide exactly how to use the stipend?  There are several possibilities: the junior may take over the senior’s everyday tasks, leaving the latter free to focus completely on research. Alternatively, the junior may assist the senior curator in the research in the framework of a partnership. How did you decide on the division of labor?

“It wouldn’t be realistic to think you could set aside your regular duties for months on end. To begin with, Iris only works three days a week. Aside from that, there are some responsibilities that I must continue to perform myself,” Liesbeth explains. “But it’s wonderful that Iris can take over some of my tasks. She had already worked at the Centraal Museum for a year during her Master’s degree course. She knows the museum and the people who work here, and these months enable her to learn a great deal more about precisely what the curator’s profession involves.”

Iris adds: “My internship was the beginning of our collaboration. It gave me an idea of the way Liesbeth works and what is expected of her – what the responsibilities of a curator consist of. I followed the final phase of the Bentvueghels exhibition. Now we are in the initial phases of a project, in which there is room for research, for refining the exhibition concept – and I can raise more questions. Since I’ve already built up a familiarity with the surroundings, I find it easier to take on certain tasks, such as answering questions from the public, and giving lectures and guided tours. I also take part in the workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion. I noticed that this calls for a certain knowledge of the organization. It’s great that I can use my knowledge and operate there independently.”

Are you also involved in the actual research on Honthorst, Iris? Or is that more Liesbeth’s work, while you mainly take on some of her other tasks?

“Liesbeth conducts the research, but I am involved through minor tasks she gives me to do. For instance, right now I’m compiling an overview of all the drawings that were made by Honthorst or attributed to him. I’m also establishing contact with institutions that have seventeenth-century musical instruments in their care. We would like to show a number of them at the exhibition, since they often play a role in Honthorst’s paintings. In addition, Liesbeth has asked me to study Honthorst’s signatures.”

Liesbeth adds: “For me, it’s ideal that I can delegate tasks like that to Iris.  At the same time, she is also my sparring partner – so we look at the list of objects and refine it together, for example. It’s wonderful to have someone who can give feedback when we’re testing ideas.”

“As for me”, Iris remarks, “I learn a tremendous amount by seeing the kinds of problems Liesbeth has to deal with, all the things that crop up during the research, and how she handles them. I get to see how certain choices are made, the questions that are raised by the research, and the factors that are taken into consideration, for both the publication and the exhibition.”

Can you give any specific examples of what you learn from each other?

“There are all sorts of things!” replies Liesbeth. “I can see how she reacts to certain ways of expressing something, the use of specific words. She also helps me with all sorts of shortcuts on the computer. And when it comes to developing my views and opinions on a subject like diversity and inclusion, for instance, I find our cooperation really refreshing. Fortunately, Iris always says exactly what she thinks. I value that enormously. It helps to keep me on my toes. And it works because there’s a basis of mutual trust. Cooperating on the basis of equality is crucial in a partnership like this.”

Iris takes up the thread: “What I find really valuable and will certainly keep up in the future is that Liesbeth has a paper archive. I think it’s really fantastic, although it’s actually quite old-fashioned, since nowadays we digitize everything. But it’s really extremely useful. I also learn a lot by answering the public’s questions, even just by discovering the kinds of things our visitors are curious about. This morning, I met with a journalism student who wanted to do a video interview on the way in which we as a museum approach the Netherlands’ colonial past when dealing with Old Master paintings. It was a learning experience to speak on camera – and also, of course, to engage with her on this topic.”

Last year, CODART commissioned a study on the present state – and the future – of the profession of Curator of Old Masters. How do you view this issue? Liesbeth, you’ve been working in the field for a long time: what are the main changes you’ve seen over the years?

“That’s not an easy question to answer,” replies Liesbeth. “Iris and I often discuss it. Times have really changed. When I started out here as a curator, my first task was to make a collection catalogue of the paintings. That was an ideal beginning, since it enabled me to become very familiar with the collection early on. After that I made another catalogue, of paintings from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which included the results of research on materials and techniques. That scientific basis regarding the collection is now available. Now, you see that more and more curators are undergoing general training – and there are fewer specialists than in the past. Curators are expected to think about very different questions than when I started out – questions about the museum’s raison d’être. Those are not easy questions to answer, but they are perfectly valid. This shift in perspective is also transforming the function and role of the curator, who is now, far more than in the past, a translator and narrator, as it were, for the public. This task of translating the art we manage into stories that are illuminating for the public has rightly become extremely important. I have always wanted to make it clear that Old Masters are not dusty old images but exciting and fascinating artworks to delve into. But that does mean you have to explain how and why to younger visitors, for instance.”

Iris adds: “Not only young people need explanations and storytelling – it’s also important for people who don’t often visit museums.”

Liesbeth highlights a specific change: “Something that has become prominent quite recently is an awareness of our responsibility in relation to the past, where the collection is concerned. How was the collection built up? What are the troubling issues? How much social responsibility do you bear as a museum? Curators can no longer retreat to an ivory tower. That doesn’t mean we can’t put on art exhibitions – of course we can. But the curator’s profession has absolutely changed. More than ever, we have to cater to our visitors’ interests.”

Iris agrees: “I think that these new issues pose an exhilarating challenge within the Centraal Museum.  Because we have many different subsections within our collection, but the museum has the same objectives and core values, regardless of these differences. Subjects like diversity and inclusion are easier to express in the contemporary art collection. How we can approach this subject in relation to the Old Masters is a very interesting question.”

To come back to the Honthorst project for a minute: are you running up against any difficulties or obstacles in the course of the preparations?

“Oh, definitely,” replies Liesbeth. “One of the biggest obstacles is the exponential rise in the cost of loans. In this case that’s a really big problem, since several important works by Honthorst are in the US. That puts enormous pressure on the budget. I’ve also noticed that it’s becoming more and more important to start preparing very early. Some paintings are in great demand – not only because they’re masterpieces, but because certain subjects are now attracting special attention – paintings depicting or made by women artists, for instance. This pressure on certain themes also means some objects are harder to obtain. I’m far more precise these days in choosing what loans to request, not only because of the expense, but because there are some paintings it’s better not to move from their location. For instance, I will not be submitting a renewed request for Honthorst’s superb altarpiece with the beheading of John the Baptist from Santa Maria della Scala in Rome. It has been shown in Utrecht once before, during the exhibition Utrecht, Caravaggio, and Europe, and it seems to me unnecessary to bring it to Utrecht again – even though it is a wonderful early work by Honthorst.”

A final word from you, Iris: Is there anything you have found surprising? What do you enjoy most, or consider most challenging?

“Since I did an internship here as a curatorial trainee, I have not encountered any major surprises within the organization. What I like most – and consider the main challenge – is how to link the different subsections within the collection, and especially the Old Masters of course, to topical social themes. I also find it interesting and inspiring to see how progressive the Centraal Museum is in its exhibition designs. The most valuable part of my current position is the practical experience I’m getting. I learned how to do research during my studies, of course, but it’s only now that I am encountering many of the everyday aspects of museum work. I think that combination, of theoretical training and practical experience, will be of great value to my future career.”

Liesbeth Helmus is Senior Curator of Old Master Paintings and Drawings at Centraal Museum in Utrecht. She has been a member of CODART since 1998. Iris Blokker was Junior Curator of Old Masters at Centraal Museum in Utrecht from February to September 2024. She is currently a fellow at Allard Pierson in Amsterdam.