Art & Project

Art & Project was a leading contemporary art gallery and influential art magazine based in the Netherlands, active from 1968 to 2001. Founded by Geert van Beijeren and Adriaan van Ravesteijn in Amsterdam, the gallery operated for over three decades, first in Amsterdam and later in Slootdorp, before closing in December 2001. Its companion publication, the Art & Project Bulletin, ran from 1968 to 1989 and became a significant platform for conceptual and minimalist art. Art & Project is recognized as one of the Netherlands' major centers for the renewal of contemporary art in Europe, alongside institutions such as the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Gallery Riekje Swart.

Art & Project opened in September 1968 in Van Ravesteijn's parental home at Richard Wagnerstraat 8 in Amsterdam-Zuid. The inaugural exhibition featured sculptures by German artist Charlotte Posenenske, followed by a show on Dutch designers Jan Slothouber and William Pars Graatsma. Initially open only during evenings and weekends, with no invitations or vernissages, the gallery presented about six exhibitions annually in its early years. In March 1970, Gilbert & George restaged their Posing on Stairs performance as living sculptures, replicating a presentation they had first given at the Stedelijk Museum. The gallery moved to Van Breestraat 18 in 1971, near the Stedelijk Museum and opposite Riekje Swart's gallery, then to Willemsparkweg 36 from 1973 to 1979. From 1979 to 1989 it occupied Prinsengracht 785. In 1973 and 1974, Art & Project operated a space in Antwerp in cooperation with Brussels gallery MTL. In 1989 the gallery relocated to Slootdorp, in the former community house of the Jewish labor camp Nieuwesluis, where it remained until seasons until closing in December 2001. Geert van Beijeren died a few years later, in 2005.

From its inception, Art & Project focused on international artists associated with Minimal Art, Conceptual Art, and Land Art. Beginning in May 1969, the gallery concentrated on conceptual artists, building a roster that included many of the movement's defining figures. The gallery cultivated relationships with other international galleries including Konrad Fischer in Düsseldorf, Yvonne Lambert in Paris, Sperone in Turin, Jack Wendler in London, and Claire Copley in Los Angeles. Important collectors who acquired works through Art & Project included Edy de Wilde, director of the Stedelijk Museum from 1963 to 1985; Benno Premsela; Martin and Mia Visser; Frits and Agnes Becht; Herman and Nicole Daled; and Anton and Annick Herbert.

The artists who exhibited at Art & Project and contributed to its bulletin form a roster of major figures in late twentieth-century art. These include Stanley Brouwn, Daniel Buren, Jan Dibbets, Gilbert & George, Douglas Huebler, Sol LeWitt, and Lawrence Weiner, as well as Barry Flanagan, Robert Barry, Carl Andre, Alan Charlton, Joseph Kosuth, Richard Long, Andrew Lord, David Tremlett, Aliani Boetti, Francesco Clemente, Allen Ruppersberg, Marcel Broodthaers, John Baldessari, Hamish Fulton, Ian Wilson, Bas Jan Ader, and Han Schuil. The gallery's program was distinguished by its early and sustained commitment to conceptual practices, with many artists creating site-specific or editioned works for the bulletin format. The Gilbert & George living sculpture performance of March 1970 stands as a particularly noted event in the gallery's exhibition history.

Art & Project occupied several locations during its existence. It began in a 1955 semi-detached house on Richard Wagnerstraat in Amsterdam-Zuid, using the hallway for exhibitions. The 1971 move to Van Breestraat 18 placed it in proximity to both the Stedelijk Museum and competitor Gallery Riekje Swart. From 1973 to 1979 the gallery was at Willemsparkweg 36, and from 1979 to 1989 it held a large ground-floor space at Prinsengracht 785 on one of Amsterdam's central canals. The final relocation in 1989 took the gallery to Slootdorp in rural North Holland, specifically to the former community house of the Jewish labor camp Nieuwesluis in the village of Nieuwesluis near Slootdorp, a remote location far from Amsterdam's art center. This move to an isolated village marked a significant geographical and conceptual shift for the gallery in its final years.

Art & Project was a private commercial gallery, not a public museum, and its visiting arrangements reflected this status. In its early years it maintained unconventional hours, open only evenings and weekends, later expanding to afternoon hours. The gallery did not hold opening receptions or send invitations. The Art & Project Bulletin, distributed free of charge to approximately 400 addresses of artists, galleries, and curators, with remaining copies available at the gallery, served as a primary means of communication and engagement. After the gallery's closure in December 2001, its archival legacy was preserved: the Art & Project archives were transferred to the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, occupying 92 meters of shelf space and becoming accessible for consultation from January 1, 2014. The complete set of 156 bulletins was reissued by Adriaan van Ravesteijn in collaboration with the original printer. The bulletins have been the subject of retrospectives, including at MAMCO Geneva in 2003-2004 and in New York in 2007-2008.