1 The history of creating the archive
Click here for the table of contents of the archive
1.1 History of the archive creator
1.2 Custodial history
1.3 Acquisition history
1.1 History of the archive creator
Geert van Beijeren Bergen en Henegouwen (1933-2005) and Adriaan van Ravesteijn (1938-2015) started Art & Project in the front room of Van Ravesteijn's parents' house at Richard Wagnerstraat 8 in Amsterdam South. The year was 1968. In 1971, they moved to Van Breestraat, closer to the city centre. This was followed by two more moves in Amsterdam: to Willemsparkweg 36 (1973-1978) and to Prinsengracht 785 (1978-1989).
Initially, they focused on the interaction between architecture and visual art, with projects and exhibitions involving space. Then they focused even further on conceptual art, which was developing at the time, and later on painting and sculpture in general.
Art & Project became the most internationally oriented and innovative gallery in the Netherlands. Through contacts with the exhibiting artists, relationships with galleries at home and abroad were established and Art & Project participated in various projects. The gallery itself was also active outside its headquarters on several occasions. In early spring 1970, for instance, Art & Project settled in Tokyo for two months. There, issues 20 and 21 of the famous bulletin were printed. An interview with Adriaan van Ravesteijn by Ton Geerts details the Art & Project bulletins, all 156 of which were produced in close cooperation with the artists and distributed internationally.
In 1973 and 1974, exhibitions in Antwerp were realised in collaboration with the Brussels gallery MTL / Fernand Spillemaeckers. Together with Galerie Van Krimpen, Art & Project had an annex in a nineteenth-century villa next to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam from 1991 to 1993. In 1990, the gallery's headquarters were moved from Amsterdam to the former Jewish Working Village of Nieuwesluis in Slootdorp, in the north of North Holland. The days of bulletins were then over. However, as in the 1970s, a dozen booklets by various artists were published. August 1998, Van Beijeren and Van Ravesteijn ended their regular gallery practice. Henceforth, they focused on occasional projects. On 1 January 2002, Art & Project ceased to exist permanently.
Besides working for Art & Project, Van Beijeren and Van Ravesteijn were also active in other fields within the art world. Geert van Beijeren worked at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, first as librarian and then as curator. He was also involved in the Museumjournaal and edited a number of catalogues. From 1986 to 1989, he was head of the Modern Art Department at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Together with Wim van Krimpen and Martijn Sanders, Adriaan van Ravesteijn was active on the board of the Stichting Kunstbeurs, organiser of the KunstRai in Amsterdam. He also held a board position at the Stichting Eén op Eén and was an advisor at the Praktijkbureau Beeldende Kunstopdrachten (Bureau for Visual Art Assignments). Personal initiatives were closely intertwined with the gallery's work. As collectors, Van Beijeren and Van Ravesteijn amassed an impressive collection of contemporary art.
The lives devoted to art and artists of Adriaan van Ravesteijn and Geert van Beijeren are reflected in the archives, which were painstakingly housed by them at the RKD. On the history of Art & Project, its bulletins and the context in which its developments took place, see, among others:
- Jan van Adrichem, ‘Geert van Beijeren (1933-2005)’, Stedelijk Museum Bulletin, 2005, pp. 40- 41
- Christophe Cherix, In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960-1976, New York 2009 and in the same publication: Rini Dippel's, ‘Art & Project, the early years’.
- Ton Geerts, ‘Interview with Adriaan van Ravesteijn on the Art & Project Bulletins’, pp. 63-84 in: L. Riley-Smith (ed.), Art & Project Bulletins 1-156 September 1968-November 1989, Londen/Cambridge/Parijs, 2011, pp. 63-84
- Ton Geerts, ‘Art & Project (1968-2001)’, RKD-bulletin, (2012, 1), pp. 24-30
- [aanvullen met catalogus KMM]
1.2 Custodial history
The Art& Project archive was formed and managed at various locations by Adriaan van Ravesteijn and Geert van Beijeren. In 1989, it moved with them from Amsterdam to Slootdorp. Before the gallery ceased to exist on 1 January 2002, Adriaan van Ravesteijn and Geert van Beijeren already started preparing the transfer of the archive to The Hague. After Geert's death in 2005, Adriaan completed this big job on his own. A first transfer of archive material to the RKD took place on 19 December 2000. After that, various transfers took place at long intervals from Slootdorp and, after Van Ravestein's move in 2008, from Leeuwarden and occasionally from Rijksmuseum Twenthe. Each time a well-kept shipment of archival documents, documentation and books was ready for transport, we were notified by Adriaan. The last shipment took place at the end of 2014.
1.3 Acquisition history
The archive and the library associated with it were transferred to the RKD on loan. In 2013, the loan agreement was converted into a donation with the accompanying stipulations and agreements on public access and consultation.