The Low Countries. Jaargang 5

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Publication

 

This fifth yearbook is published by the Flemish-Netherlands Foundation ‘Stichting Ons Erfdeel’, with the support of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Zoetermeer) and the Flemish Ministry of Culture (Brussels). The Foundation ‘Stichting Ons Erfdeel’ also publishes the Dutch-language periodical Ons Erfdeel and the French-language periodical Septentrion. Arts et culture de Flandre et des Pays-Bas, the bilingual yearbook De Franse Nederlanden - Les Pays-Bas Français and a series of books in several languages covering various aspects of the culture of the Low Countries.

 

The Board of Directors of ‘Stichting Ons Erfdeel’

 

Honorary President: Raf Renard

 

President: Philip Houben

 

Managing Director: Jozef Deleu

 

Directors: Herman Balthazar / Hans Bosman / Jan Bosselaers / Annemarie Deleu-Deblaere / Jan Desmyter / Vaast Leysen / Cecile Maeyaert-Cambien / Adriaan van der Staay / Adriaan Verhulst

 

Address of the Editorial Board and the Administration

 

‘Stichting Ons Erfdeel’, Murissonstraat 260, 8931 Rekkem, Flanders, Belgium

tel. +32 56 41 12 01

fax +32 56 41 47 07

e-mail erfdeel@pophost.eunet.be

url http://www.onserfdeel.be/

 

Head of Administration: Bernard Viaene Administrative Secretaries: Stephanie Debaene / Hans Verhaeghe

 

Aims

 

With The Low Countries the editors and publisher aim to present to the English-speaking world the culture and society of the Dutch-speaking area which embraces both the Kingdom of the Netherlands and also Flanders, the northern part of the Kingdom of Belgium.

 

The articles in this yearbook survey the living, contemporary culture of the Low Countries as well as their cultural heritage. In its words and pictures The Low Countries provides information about literature and the arts, but also about broad social and historical developments in Flanders and the Netherlands.

 

The culture of Flanders and the Netherlands is not an isolated phenomenon; its development over the centuries has been one of continuous interaction with the outside world. In consequence the yearbook also pays due attention to the centuries-old continuing cultural interplay between the Low Countries and the world beyond their borders.

 

By drawing attention to the diversity, vitality and international dimension of the culture of Flanders and the Netherlands, The Low Countries hopes to contribute to a lively dialogue between differing cultures.

 

issn 0779-5815

isbn 90-75862-10-5

nugi 601

 

Copyright © 1997 ‘Stichting Ons Erfdeel’

Printed by Die Keure, Bruges, Flanders, Belgium

 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior permission of the copyright holder.

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The Low Countries

Next page: Carel Willink, Landscape under a Rainy Sky (detail). 1943. Canvas, 90 × 120 cm. Collection Stichting Van Baaren, Utrecht (© Sylvia Willink).

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THE LOW COUNTRIES

Arts and Society in Flanders and the Netherlands

A Yearbook

 

1997-98

Published by the

Flemish-Netherlands Foundation ‘Stichting Ons Erfdeel’

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Editorial Board

 

Chief Editor: Jozef Deleu

 

Deputy Editors: Luc Devoldere, Frits Niessen, Reinier Salverda

 

Secretary: Filip Matthijs

 

Members: Dirk van Assche, Anton Korteweg, Hans Vanacker

 

Design and Picture Editor: Kees Nieuwenhuijzen

 

Advisory Committee

 

Fred G.H. Bachrach, Twickenham, United Kingdom

E.M. Beekman, Amherst, ma, usa

André Brink, Cape Town, South Africa

James Brockway, The Hague, The Netherlands

Christopher Brown, London, United Kingdom

Patricia Carson, Ghent, Belgium

Jan Deloof, Zwevegem, Belgium

Theo D'haen, Leiden, The Netherlands

Bruce C. Donaldson, Melbourne, Australia

Charles Ford, London, United Kingdom

Amy Golahny, Williamsport, pa, usa

Jaap Harskamp, London, United Kingdom

Adrian van den Hoven, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Jonathan Israel, London, United Kingdom

E.H. Kossmann, Groningen, The Netherlands

Frank Ligtvoet, New York, ny, usa

Hans van Marle, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Martin Mooij, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Arnold J. Pomerans, Colchester, United Kingdom

Ethel Portnoy, The Hague, The Netherlands

Paul R. Sellin, Los Angeles, ca, usa

William Z. Shetter, Bloomington, in, usa

Johan P. Snapper, Berkeley, ca, usa

Kees Snoek, Auckland, New Zealand

Paul Vincent, London, United Kingdom

Leo Vroman, Brooklyn, ny, usa

Rudi Wester, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

John Willemse, Pretoria, South Africa

Michael J. Wintle, Hull, United Kingdom

Manfred Wolf, San Francisco, ca, usa

Joanna Woodall, London, United Kingdom

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Contents

12	Ludo Abicht
Antwerp, World Port and Provincial City
21	Louise S. Milne
Money and Excrement The Psychology of Capital and the Marketplace in Pieter Bruegel the Elder's ‘Dulle Griet’
31	E.H. Kossmann
Toleration and Tolerance in the Netherlands
38	Jos Bouveroux
Pandora's Box Political Culture in Belgium
46	Peter Hoefnagels
Three Countries in One Kingdom The Netherlands Antilles and the Paradox of Independence
55	Rudi Wester
The Low Countries on the Road Travel Writing in Flanders and the Netherlands
61	Fred G.H. Bachrach
The Low Countries through British Eyes in Ages Past
73	Eduard van Ermen
Maps for Eternity Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Cartography in the Low Countries
84	Marc Reynebeau
The King is Dead, Long Live the King The Uses of Reality in the Prose of Walter van den Broeck
Extract from ‘Letter to Baudouin’ by Walter van den Broeck
90	Anne Marie Musschoot
In Search of Self New Prose Writing in Dutch after 1985
Extracts by Connie Palmen, Arnon Grunberg, Eric de Kuyper, Stefan Hertmans and Adriaan van Dis.

 

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103	Anton Korteweg and Frits Niessen
Fresh Food Ten Young Poets from Flanders and the Netherlands
Poems by Henk van der Waal, Marc Reugebrink, Peter van Lier, René Huigen, Peter Verhelst, Bernard Dewulf, Rogi Wieg, Peter Ghyssaert, Jo Govaerts and Mustafa Stitou
108	Ella B. Schaap
A Brief History of Dutch Tiles
118	Bianca Stigter
Exploring the Limits of the Familiar The Art of Guido Geelen
124	Marc Ruyters
The dna of Art The Ceramic Work of Tjok Dessauvage
130	Wim de Poorter
From ‘Y Mañana?’ to ‘Manneken Pis’ Thirty Years of Flemish Filmmaking
142	Frans Oudejans
Are the Programmes Really Doing It? Television in the Low Countries
150	Veerle Windels
David v. Goliath Fashion from Flanders
155	Max Bruinsma
Official Anarchy Dutch Graphic Design
164	Christopher Wright
The ‘Vanitas’ Piece in Dutch and Flemish Seventeenth-Century Painting
172	Anneke Wertheim
A Museum of Museums The Story of the Teyler Museum
178	M.A. Schenkeveld-van der Dussen
Bridging Two Cultures The Story of the Huygens Family
‘On the Frontispiece of “Cornflowers”’ by Constantine Huygens
187	Micky Piller
Reality and Art in the Work of Jan Dibbets and Johannes Vermeer
194	Willy van den Bussche
A Master of Everyday Life The Work of Constant Permeke
207	Jan Wauters
A Race Apart... The Flandriens and the Golden Age of Flemish Cycling
212	Hugo Brems
‘Ah, the comfort of a comparison’ The Poetry of Herman de Coninck
Five Poems by Herman de Coninck

 

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220	Anneke Reitsma
‘An order, within which there's room for chaos’ The Poetry of M. Vasalis
Seven Poems by M. Vasalis
228	Ingeborg Walinga
Paintings with an Inner Dislocation Magic Realism in the Netherlands
242	Paul Depondt
The Poetry of a Futuristic City Object-Maker and Artist Jeroen Henneman
247	Pascal Lefèvre
Flemish Comic Strips Today
253	Geert Bekaert
Architecture without Qualities The Designs of Stéphane Beel
258	Marita Mathijsen
From Dutch Student to London Schoolmaster The Literary Work of Gerrit van de Linde
Three Poems by The Schoolmaster

 

Chronicle

 

Architecture

268	Hans Ibelings
Continuity and Change Herman Hertzberger's Recent Architecture

 

Cultural Policy

270	Hans Vanacker
Strolling through Flanders, Past and Present
271	Reinier Salverda
Dutch Books in London Libraries

 

Film and Theatre

272	Gerdin Linthorst
‘I always put my actors first’ The Films of Frans Weisz
273	Pieter Bots
The Netherlands Theatre Institute Restyled
275	Dirk van Assche
Dance in Flanders
276	Hana Bobkova
‘Big black holes with the glittering of diamonds’ Theatre according to Ivo van Hove

 

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History

277	Marie Juliette Marinus
St Anna's Chapel in Antwerp
278	Walter Prevenier
Chivalric and Urban Culture in the Low Countries during the Late Middle Ages
280	Aart van Zoest
The Utrecht Psalter A Unique and Precious Ninth-Century Book
281	Jo Tollebeek
An Overview and a Remembering A New History of the Low Countries

 

Language

282	Greetje van den Bergh
Europe, Dutch and the Dutch Language Union Taking the Bull by the Horns
284	Jan W. de Vries
A Decade of Dutch Studies in Leiden

 

Literature

285	A.L. Sötemann
Nescio, a Great Author of a Small Oeuvre
286	Filip Matthijs
Johan Snapper and ‘Vantage Points’ A Festschrift for ‘eine bunte Eminenz’
288	Frans de Rover
Harry Mulisch's ‘The Discovery of Heaven’ An International Success
290	Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor
Anne Frank and After
292	Rudi Wester
The tls Vondel Translation Prize

 

Music

292	Luc Devoldere
The Royal Carillon School in Mechelen Chimes from Flanders
293	Erik van den Berg
The Beau Hunks ‘The best thing from Holland since tulips’

 

Philosophy

295	Herman-Emiel Mertens
Max Wildiers, Theologian and Cultural Philosopher

 

Society

296	Selma Leydesdorff
The Memoirs of Aletta Jacobs A Modest Testimony
298	William Z. Shetter
Dutch American Voices

 

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Visual Arts

299	Erik Bracke
Small, Incomplete but Charming The Museum of Decorative Art in Ghent
301	Fred G.H. Bachrach
The Jan van Goyen Quatercentenary and Britain
303	Filip Matthijs
Rubens' Landscapes The Private Works of a Public Artist
305	Luc Devoldere
Simply Marblelous On Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
306	Steven Heene
Two World Press Photo Prizes for Stephan Vanfleteren
307	Ineke Schwartz
Panorama Mesdag A Dutch Mega-Painting
309	Filip Matthijs
The Ghent Altarpiece A Great Miniature
311	Filip Matthijs
A New Encyclopedia of Dutch Art
312	Bibliography of Dutch-Language
Publications translated into English (traced in 1996)
318	Contributors
319	Translators