The 200,000th visitor to the double exhibition was given a festive reception and congratulated by Erwin Olaf himself on the afternoon of Tuesday 16 April. The success of the double exhibition has prompted the Gemeentemuseum and The Hague Museum of Photography to extend the run of both exhibitions to Sunday 16 June.
Erwin Olaf is proud of this major success. ‘I didn’t see this coming. Of course you hope people are going to respond well when you show forty years of work and invite them into your world, but it also makes you feel vulnerable. I’m immensely moved that people have shown my work touches them.’
‘What we are delighted about is that visitors of all ages, and from other countries, have come to see the exhibition’, says director Benno Tempel. ‘Almost 25% of them were at the Gemeentemuseum for the first time. We also see this in the enthusiastic responses to our building on social media. As well as Erwin’s magnificent photographs, people are also sharing pictures of our stairwells with murals by Sol LeWitt, our impressive entrance hall flooded with daylight and details that are unique to the building, such as the specially designed bricks.’
About the double exhibition
The double exhibition Erwin Olaf opened at Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and The Hague Museum of Photography on Saturday 16 February. It is the museums’ tribute to one of the Netherlands’ most famous photographers, Erwin Olaf. Olaf, whose portraits of the royal family drew widespread admiration last year, will turn sixty this year – a good moment to stage a major retrospective. The Hague Museum of Photography is focusing on Olaf’s love of his craft and his transition from analogue photojournalist to digital image-maker and storyteller. Olaf has himself brought together some twenty photographs by famous photographers of the past who have been a source of inspiration to him. The Gemeentemuseum is showing non-commissioned work by Olaf from 2000 to his latest series, including the work he produced in Shanghai and his most recent series Palm Springs, on display for the first time. Olaf is showing his photography in the form of installations, in combination with film, sound and sculpture. Both exhibitions will remain open until 16 June 2019.
The exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum is sponsored by Nationale-Nederlanden and BankGiro Loterij.
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