In the Netherlands great things are in the making to promote Art which dares to
transcend conventional experience of reality and longs to spread its wings in
unexplored regions of the mind and
imagination. After almost a decade of preparation the first museum for
Fantastic Realism in Holland should be realized within a few years! Although
recent progress has been made in the
negotiations concerning the realization of the museum, some minor obstacles
have yet to be removed. The building of the museum is planned to start in 2008,
the opening will probably be somewhere in 2010.
The building of this museum for fantastic art is planned at a location in the centre of Holland, very close to the well known castle in Zeist (Utrecht), in a beautiful, and culturally interesting environment. Besides being a place for the exhibition of the impressive collection of the promoter of the project, Mr van Soest , the museum will also be dedicated to the organization of exhibitions of international contemporary artists as well as of ‘forerunners’ from the past. Also an academy will be attached to the museum and in the coming years connections will be established with academies abroad.
For more than twenty years Rardy van Soest has been collecting paintings, drawings and sculptures from celebrated but also relatively unknown artists from all over the world who have dedicated their talents and gifts to this journey into the worlds of dream, nightmare, hallucination and vision.
Mr van Soest started his adventure by first focussing especially on the works of the
great Dutch maestro of the imagination, Johfra. A several hundred works by this
artist form an important part of the collection. As the years passed by Mr van
Soest broadened his perspective by making contacts with many internationally
acclaimed artists, galleries and museums. Also, in a very special way, his
intensive contact and friendship with Ernst Fuchs was important in inspiring
him to become a torchbearer and promoter for the fantastic arts in general and
to developing a more international vision for his museum project.
At the moment Rardy van Soest’s collection consists of more than 800 works. Included in his collection are the works of artists like Ernst Fuchs, Beksinsky, H.R.Giger, De Es Schwertberger, Johfra, Robert Venosa, Victor Safonkin, Andrew Gonzales, De Barros, Philip Rubinov Jacobson, Oleg Korolev, Igor Grechanyk, Peter Gric and many others. From within the Netherlands Mr van Soest will present some artists of the imagination like René Zwaga , Michaël Hiep, Petar Meseldzjia and Herman Smorenburg.
You can view a small selection of the Van Soest Collection.
Rardy van Soest also personally knows the artists represented in his collection.
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