Conceived as a multi-sited exhibition, Three Crossings brings together works of three artists, each installed in a different Amsterdam venue. The exhibition focuses on each artist's experimentation with the genre "the artist's book." It also includes, in the cases of El-Salahi and Brouwn, other relevant pieces that broaden our appreciation of their practice. The selected works are for the most part small in scale and minimalist in form, yet they speak volumes of the artists' criticality, sharpness and innovation, which remains unparalleled by their contemporaries.
About the artists:
Ibrahim El-Salahi (Sudan, 1930) is a seminal figure in African and Arabic modernism and 2001 Prince Claus Laureate. He combines African and Arabic traditions in new forms and was a founding member of the influential Khartoum School movement in the 1960's. El-Salahi continued his studies in the UK and the USA and later served as Director of Culture for the Sudanese government. Following a period of incarceration when he was falsely accused of participating in an attempted coup, he went into exile in Qatar and then the UK. He was the first artist of African birth to have a solo retrospective at Tate Modern in 2013. He has said that the black and white works in this exhibition are among his most accomplished and favourite works.
David Hammons (USA, 1943) is one of the most important conceptual artists working today. In a career spanning over 50 years, he has utilised a variety of media, often creating visual puns and including found objects to explore and comment on the realities of African-American life. Although he is considered one of the most influential American artists of the past half century, he avoids publicity, gives few interviews and sells his work from his studio rather than through gallery representation.
Stanley Brouwn (Surinam 1935–Amsterdam 2017). Starting in 1962 and until his passing in May 2017, Stanley Brouwn had consistently insisted that his biography and art work not be printed or reproduced in any publication related to exhibitions of his work.
About the curator:
Salah M. Hassan is an art historian, curator and an art critic based at Cornell University where he is Goldwin Smith Professor and Director of the Institute of Comparative Modernities, Professor at the Africana Studies and Research Center, and Professor of African and African Diaspora Art History and Visual Culture in the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies.
About the Prince Claus Fund & the AFK
The Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development supports visionaries at the forefront of culture. The Prince Claus Fund and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts (AFK) initiated a new collaboration in 2017 to present international art and extraordinary creators in Amsterdam.
For more information please visit e-flux
