We all know Piet Mondriaan. And De Stijl. But who knows Friedrich Vordemberghe-Gildewart? Well, we didn't untill we got an assignment from GEM Den Haag (Museum of Contemporary Art). 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.

Fast forward to 1981 when The Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation started its work through the last will of Ilse Engelina Vordemberge, née Leda (1906-1981), widow of Friedrich VG. In 1977 Ilse Leda had decreed that every 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”. Since 1983 the foundation gives out a yearly award through an international jury and supports research, publications and exhibitions on the work of Vordemberge-Gildewart.

In the beginning of 2020, GEM Den Haag organised the Vordemberghe-Gildewart award. Ten artists had been selected for this prestigious prize and exhibited together. Studio Lennarts & De Bruijn has been asked to design the catalog which is a nice representation of the various participating artists.

Next door neighbour Het Kunstmuseum recently bought Konstruction No.5, one of the works of Vordemberghe-Gildewart and planned a VG exhibition paralel to the Award exhibition in GEM Den Haag. That's why we decided to bring back some recognisable shapes and colors of VG's work, into our Award campaign and publication. Honouring Vordemberge-Gildewart.

The ten nominees - Salim Bayri, Deborah Bowmann, Bob Eikelboom, Ricardo van Eyk, Eva Giolo, Nadia Guerroui, Sharon van Overmeiren, Emma van der Put, Dan Walwin and Charlott Weise – studied art in the Netherlands or Belgium. The winner, Nadia Guerroui, was announced on Saturday 22 February. In view of the high standard of all this year’s nominees, the jury decided to award an incentive prize to Eva Giolo. A group show featuring work by the winner and all other nominees is at GEM museum of contemporary art until 5 April.

The award was launched by the Vordemberge-Gildewart Foundation, which was established in memory of the German-Dutch De Stijl artist by his widow Ilse Engelina Leda. The award has been presented in a different country each year since 1983. The Netherlands has hosted the ceremony twice before, in 1989 and 2000, when Guido Geelen and Mark Manders received the award.