Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Willem de Rooij
The Jewish Museum’s exhibition series bringing site-specific works of art to the Museum’s main lobby continues this fall with artist Willem de Rooij’s Bouquet XI (2014), a monumental, visually complex floral sculpture composed of species indigenous to the Middle East – inspired by the fact that Israel, like de Rooij’s native Netherlands, is a major flower exporter. Bouquet XI was realized with floral designer Bella Meyer, and contains allergenic flowers that may interrupt a pleasant viewing with sneezes or a stuffed nose. The drifting pollen alludes to the conflicts and harmonies that arise when borders are traversed and cultures collide, while the display of Middle Eastern flora, thousands of miles from their native habitat, hints at other global forms of movement, such as trade and commerce.
About the Artist
de Rooij lives and works in Berlin. Born in Beverwijk, the Netherlands in 1969, he studied art history at the University of Amsterdam and art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Since 2006 he has held the post of professor of fine art at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule, Frankfurt. His work is in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Museum Moderner Kunst, Foundation Ludwig, Vienna; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Willem de Rooij is organized by Jens Hoffmann, Deputy Director, Exhibitions and Public Programs, and Kelly Taxter, Assistant Curator.
About Lobby Artist Commissions
Since 2013, artists from around the globe have been invited to create new art or adapt a work for placement in the entrance lobby. The project builds upon Using Walls, a 1970 exhibition of commissioned artworks installed both within and beyond the gallery space of the Museum’s Warburg Mansion. That series, curated by Susan Tumarkin Goodman, began with the premise that the wall is not just a surface on which to display a work of art, but can be a component of it. Among the participating artists were Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman, Richard Tuttle, Mel Bochner, and Richard Artschwager.
This exhibition series is organized by Kelly Taxter, the Barnett and Annalee Newman Curator of Contemporary Art, The Jewish Museum.
Using Walls, Floors and Ceilings: Willem de Rooij is made possible by the generous support of Wendy Fisher and the Mondriaan Fund.
Bella Meyer, preparatory sketch for Willem de Rooij's Bouquet XI (detail), 2014, mixed media on paper © Bella Meyer/fleursBELLA
Exhibition highlights
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Installation view of Using Walls, Floors and Ceilings: Willem de Rooij, Bouquet XI, 2014. White fiberglass vase, plinth, flower arrangement of allergenic flowers originating from the Middle East, first version created by Bella Meyer, New York. Courtesy of Petzel Gallery, New York, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles. Photo by: David Heald
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Installation view of Using Walls, Floors and Ceilings: Willem de Rooij, Bouquet XI, 2014. White fiberglass vase, plinth, flower arrangement of allergenic flowers originating from the Middle East, first version created by Bella Meyer, New York. Courtesy of Petzel Gallery, New York, and Regen Projects, Los Angeles. Photo by: David Heald
