Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam 2 - 24 April 1938. Very rare catalogue for the exhibition of abstract art at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam from 2 to 24 April 1938. 27.5 x 22 cm. 16 pp. With a cover illustration by Theo van Doesburg and b/w reproductions of abstract works by Brancusi, Doesburg, Mondriaan, Moholy-Nagy, Domela, Vordemberge-Gildewart, Freundlich, Léger, Arp, Hepworth, Pevsner and Bill. Text in Dutch. With text contributions by H. Buys, Piet Mondriaan (first publication of "Kunst zonder onderwerp"), Wassily Kandinsky ("Abstract of Concreet?"), Gorin, Georg Schmidt and Dr. S. Giedion together with the prefatory motto by Th. v. Doesburg: "The painting is a free creation, a self-contained organism that arises in the mind of its creator and is realised in matter." Reference: a bis z, issue 15/1931, p. 58 (with illus.); Veen 062
"Truffled" copy with numerous handwritten annotations and the original signatures of W.A.E. van der Pluym, J.Q. van Regteren Altena, S. B. Slijper, H. Buys, C. van Eesteren, A. Elzas, D.C. Roëll, Mart Stam, Hans Arp, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart (2x), Marlow Moss, Georges Vantongerloo and two unidentified signatures.
The exhibition was brilliantly organised in every respect. Apart from a "recommendation committee", which included Heinrich Campendonk, who held a professorship at the Rijksakademie voor Beeldene Kunsten in Amsterdam after emigrating from Germany to the Netherlands, there was an honour committee and an exhibition commission, which also included Theo van Doesburg's widow (his last wife Petronella "Nelly" van Doesburg). In view of the fact that the first German "Degenerate Art" exhibition was held by the Nazis in 1937, the Amsterdam exhibition of 1938 is particularly significant, as some of the artists ostracised in Germany were exhibited there. In this respect, this exhibition had an almost protest character.
