Daan van Golden

A faux-abstract painting of a Japanese textile, a framed plank of store-bought plywood, a photographic detail of a Pollock drip composition—these and other exquisitely banal objects feature in Stedelijk Museum Schiedam’s retrospective of late Dutch artist Daan van Golden (1936–2017). With eighty works spanning 1961 to 2016 spread across six large rooms, it’s the largest presentation of his work to date.

The exhibition offers a sweeping overview of an oeuvre defined by forms of anti-compositionality. During a trip to Japan in 1963, van Golden switched from vigorous grayscale abstractions to the flat geometric style he became known for. It’s a pity there is only one example of these little-known early AbEx works on display, since he painted in the idiom for several years. This omission is compensated for, however, by the inclusion of trippy Pop paintings from the mid-1960s such as Mitsukoshi, 1964, based on patterned wrapping paper, and the “White Paintings,” 1968, which schematically render a lone white panel floating in blue space.

For van Golden, recycling images was an expression of taste, perception, and style that evolved throughout his career. Pictures of silhouetted figures dominate the upstairs galleries dedicated to later work. A version of Yves Klein’s Red Study, 1957, is hung near Mozart, 2010, a profile of the composer on a pale-blue background.

The show is stocked with wall texts about van Golden’s biography and process, via vitrines of photographs, ephemera, and newspaper clippings. In one corner is a documentary slideshow and partial reconstruction of Agua Azul, 1987: an installation of blue sapphire pebbles sprinkled along the paths of Rotterdam’s Hortus Botanicus.

The dense format of the exhibition (closely hung paintings, extensive captions) yields a viewing experience that is at odds with the contemplativeness of the work. That’s no problem, though; the curatorial framing enriches understanding, and will spark further interest in this elusive artist.