Past exhibitions

The family living room is dedicated to the graphic works of Bart van der Leck (1876-1958). Bart van der Leck started his career in the decorative arts with stained glass windows and illustrations. Starting in earnest as a painter from 1906 onwards during the years 1913-1918 he changed his style gradually but also dramatically from figurative to abstract art. He was hired by the shipping firm Müller & Co in 1914 and this led to the commission of his first poster. His vision of abstract art included the choice in 1916 to only use the primary colours red, yellow and blue in its purest form. In this way he influenced Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg, with whom he founded the art movement De Stijl in 1917. He left the group already in 1918 as he decided to return to semi-abstraction and to keep diagonals, to which especially Mondrian was very much opposed.

Delft Salad Oil Company

The commission in 1919 to design a poster for the Delft Salad Oil Company could have catapulted Van der Leck, as Jan Toorop before him, into the realm of eternal poster fame as his design was in more than one way revolutionary.

The poster was however never printed and the lettering he created was kept from the public. It is not clear if the design was just judged to be to “modern” or that it was also caused by the decision to change the name of the brand from Delftsche Slaolie to Calvé Delft as happened shortly after. Van der Leck was very disappointed.

Exhibition poster

In 1919 he designed a poster for his own exhibition in Utrecht. This clearly shows his style described above. The image represents a horseman on a horse. The red is probably a pedestal, in the blue above we can see the sky.

Batavier-line

A year later he found that Müller & Co, without consulting him, had changed his Batavier poster. He felt that not just as another disappointment but as a clear insult as he had worked for the Kröller-Müller family, and especially art-collector Helene, in, what he thought of, as a close and friendly relationship. Today Bart van der Leck as a poster designer is known for a version of the Batavier-line poster that he did not approve of. This exhibition is a first step to change that view. A publication is to follow.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Grafische Werkplaats Den Haag. In 1974, a group of artists squatted the building where the graphic workshop is still located. The Analog 74-24 festival celebrates this feat and looks to the future with an extensive program on activism and community. During the festival, Design Museum Dedel presents the exhibition Grafische Werkplaats Moet Blijven! with posters of the protest action (2012) against the cutbacks that threatened the workshop.

In 2012, the municipality came up with a drastic cutback plan for the arts sector, as a result of which the Grafische Werkplaats would have to close its doors. About fifty artists and designers took action against these disastrous plans. More than 1000 posters in 55 variations (all screen-printed in A2 format in the workshop) were distributed throughout the city, to make it clear that the Grafische Werkplaats is a crucial facility for visual artists and designers from South Holland. The posters could not only be seen in public spaces, but also in exhibitions at the Grafische Werkplaats and the Haagse Kunstkring. Autonomous works of the exhibitors were presented alongside their posters to emphasise the relationship between applied and free work. With these manifestations and exhibitions, the artists succeeded in convincing the municipality. The Grafische Werkplaats continued!

Design Museum Dedel is showing a selection of these posters, which have played such an important role in the recent history of the Grafische Werkplaats. The posters demonstrate how the activist spirit and sense of community among users of the workshop has always lived on since its foundation in 1974.

With posters by Zeloot, Weitenberg, Pat Andrea, Wendy Wenders, G.J. de Rook, Ilja Walraven, Ton Martens and many others

february 8 2023 until the end of 2024

Ukraine. People. Courage. Posters

Posters from Ukraine, 2022 as well as from the 1920’s. This exhibition is held to support the Ukrainian people. The posters from 2022 are for sale in a limited edition with proceeds going towards the artists (10%), the museum (25%) and Ukrainian War Relief (65%).
Free entrance for those holding a Ukrainian passport or ID card.21 May benefit auction of the posters.

Also showing from 15 February until 12 November 2023, “War to War. Posters for Peace 1912-2022”