From: 25 may 2019
Through: 05 january 2020
Location: Kasteel Het Nijenhuis

GRAPHIC NOVELS - DRAWINGS BY PJOTR MÜLLER

After some fifty years as an artist Pjotr Müller (b. 1947) reflects on his career in an autobiographical graphic novel entitled ‘Boek voor Mo’ (‘Book for Mo’), and drawings from his forthcoming book.

In 2015 Pjotr Müller began making a series of coloured prints of his art, and drawing a fictional environment around them in black pen. This graphic narrative was originally highly personal, intended for his son Mo. Gradually, however, it evolved into his entire life story, depicting his life as an artist, his reasons for becoming a sculptor, his relationship with his family and professional partners, his sources of inspiration and, of course, his work to date.

Having completed the autobiography, Müller decided to continue working in the comic strip genre. He is now making new drawings for a graphic novel that tells a fairytale, with images and poetry, in an activist tone. He wants to make a statement with art, using it as a means of influencing cultural policy and the current social climate. Müller believes that we need to hear a message which counters the neoliberalist message that the economy is the most important thing.

Museum de Fundatie is showing a selection from the more than three hundred original drawings for Boek voor Mo, and a preview of the new drawings for the forthcoming graphic novel.

Müller made Het huis van de Kunstverzamelaar (‘The House of the Art Collector’) specially for the Eastside exhibition at Nijenhuis Castle in 2010. The Huis was a lighthearted reference to the history of the castle, where collector Dirk Hannema came to live with his large art collection in 1958. Het Huis van de Kunstverzamelaar is a Rietveld-like structure, yet at the same time it subverts the designer’s strict dogmas. Rather than Rietveld’s favourite colours red, blue and yellow, Müller chose lollipop colours like bright pink. As well as objects that refer to art, the house also contains abstract children’s drawings, as if Müller wanted to say that collecting art is like a game, so don’t take it too seriously.

The sculpture Architectuur Studies (2019) stands in the castle’s sculpture park. It is Museum de Fundatie’s latest acquisition for the Overijssel provincial collection.