Courant 8 - CODART

codart Courant 8/June 2004 2
A word from the
director
On 18 April lotPolish Airline flight lo268
from Schiphol to Warsaw had about an hour
delay in departure. As a result, the codart
zevenstudy trip participants traveling with
the main party arrived late in Warsaw, with a
mild case of nerves about making their quick
connection to Gdan´ sk, where the visit to
Poland began the following morning. The
transit was not as smooth as it might have
been, on account of the far more stringent
security on the inland Warsaw-Gdan´ sk route
than on the international leg of the trip from
Amsterdam to Warsaw. But the plane did not
leave without us, and we reached the Novotel
in Gdan´ sk not long after midnight.
In my bag was an amazingly detailed letter
from the Arts Council of the Netherlands, the
Raad voor Cultuur, mapping out the scenario
for the announcement of its recommendations
to the State Secretary of Culture for the fouryear
funding period 2005-08. The complete text
was to appear on Internet on the Monday
morning, 19 April. The evening before, the 833
individual applicants were to receive an e-mail
from the Council with the text of the
recommendation concerning their own
institution. The continuation of codartin
its present form depended in large measure on
what was in that recommendation.
Getting onto the Internet with your
notebook pc from a Polish hotel room, I have
Photo Thea Vignau-Wilberg
learned in the course of time, is a hit-or-miss
affair. Around 1:30 a.m., after ten or so
unsuccessful attempts to reach call-in
numbers in Poland, Germany and the
Netherlands, I got a hit on a repeat call to
Germany. With my wife Loekie and the
codartassociates Wietske Donkersloot and
Navany Almazan looking over my shoulder, I
read the e-mail and the report.
‘codartmakes an important
contribution to the job of tracking down and
profiling Dutch and Flemish art throughout
the world. The Council concludes that in the
past years codarthas worked in a purposeful
fashion towards the accomplishment of its
aims. Partly with the use of new technologies,
the worldwide network of curators of Dutch
and Flemish art has been charted and made
accessible to the professional field… codart
has put together a well-functioning network
that, among its other functions, furthers the
development of expertise in the area of Dutch
and Flemish art…. The judgment of the
Council concerning codart’s request for
subsidy is positive.’ (For the complete Dutch
text, see http://www.cultuur.nl/cultuurnota.
html.)
Although we had asked for a slightly higher
amount per year than we had been granted for
2001-04, we were relieved and very pleased that
the Council advised the State Secretary to
continue funding us at the old level, 164,000
euros a year. Even though there is a theoretical
possibility that the government will decide
not to follow the recommendation, I am
confident that it will. We clinked our whiskey
glasses, drank to our success and went happily
to sleep.
Those nerves about making connections in
Poland did not end at Warsaw Airport. Polish
society and its physical arrangements are not
exactly a well-oiled machine. In fact, the study
trip presented us at many turns with
unexpected surprises, some of which could
have detracted from the value of the trip. In the
event, none did. All the institutions on our
itinerary were open to us, their staff as helpful
and friendly as we could wish. The buses and
trains were on time, the restaurants were ready
with the meals we ordered. In part because of
our worries that things might go wrong, we
were all the more delighted at how
resoundingly right they went. The promise
held out by our Polish colleagues was – with
one major exception, the postponement of the
exhibition of Dutch and Flemish drawings in
Warsaw (see p. 23) – more than fulfilled.
codart zevenbrought an important
turning point in my own understanding of the
central phenomenon on which codartis
based, the dispersal of Dutch and Flemish art
through the world. Until now, we may have
assumed too easily that the presence abroad of
Netherlandish art implied a positive reception
at the moment of dispersal of the culture of the
Low Countries. In his talk at the congress in
Utrecht on 8 March, Antoni Ziemba, head of
the department of Old Master paintings at the
National Museum in Warsaw, introduced an
important nuance into this way of thinking.
He pointed out that even as Pomeranian cities
like Gdan´ sk were being rebuilt and decorated
in a style we consider Netherlandish, by
architects, artists and engineers from the
Netherlands, local society did not see the
transformation as a specifically Netherlandish
contribution to their culture. The new style
was regarded as a renovation common to all
northern European societies. When it came to
a conscious choice for foreign examples, as in
giving form to the government, Poland turned
decisively to Italy.
This insight brings with it the challenge to
examine more closely the role of Dutch and
Flemish art abroad – and for that matter in the
Low Countries themselves – at each period
since they were made. It gives reason to expand
the intellectual and perhaps even the formal
terms under which codartoperates. Most
importantly, it underscores a principle that we
have embraced from the start: that Dutch and
Flemish art do not form a closed system, but
operate within a larger European and global
culture. That was true in the 16th and 17th
centuries, and it is true today. It is truer than
ever since 1 May 2004, when the Netherlands
and Belgium became equal members, with
Poland and 22 other countries, of a great
European polity. I have always believed that
we belong together, and although not
everyone agrees, it is a wonderful thing that
European unity is getting a chance to prove
itself. If I may be excused for a touch of
arrogance – I wish the European Union as
much good will from its members as codart
enjoys.
Gary Schwartz