We all know Piet Mondriaan and De Stijl, but who has ever heard ofFriedrich Vordemberghe-Gildewart? Well, we didn't until we got an assignment from GEM Den Haag (Museum of Contemporary Art in The Hague).

Apparently, Vordemberge-Gildewart (1899-1962) was one of the first artists to create an entirely abstract body of work(!). His innovative spirit was akin to that of the artists of De Stijl, the movement he joined in 1925. We highly recommend looking up some of his works.
Back in the late 70s, Ilse Engelina Vordemberge, née Leda (1906-1981), widow of Friedrich VG. had decreed that each year one artist from a European country should get a grant out of the estate “to live and work absolutely free from care for one year”*.

Fast forward to ‘81 when the then founded The Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation started its work through the last will of Ilse Leda. Since 1983, the foundation gives out the yearly award (presented in a different European country each year) through an international jury and supports research, publications and exhibitions on the work of Vordemberge-Gildewart.
The Netherlands has hosted the ceremony twice before, in 1989 and 2000, when Guido Geelen and Mark Manders received the award.

At the beginning of 2020, GEM Den Haag organised the Vordemberghe-Gildewart award. Ten artists had been selected for this prestigious prize and were exhibited together. Yours truly have been requested to design the catalog which turned out as a nice representation of the various selected artists.