Lily van der Stokker, Kunstwerkje, 2006/2024*

Kunstwerkje by the renowned artist Lily van der Stokker (1954) has been given a new home in the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam. Originally displayed in the former entrance area – now the location of Panorama Schiedam – the mural was displaced following renovations that relocated the entrance to the chapel. Three years later, this striking piece has finally been recreated by the artist and her team and is now back on permanent display in the museum’s souterrain.

For more than 30 years, Lily van der Stokker has been known for her exuberantly cheerful and colourful drawings and murals. Subjects such as age, growing old, domesticity and household items, birthdays, family, meals and other simple, everyday things are breezily depicted in her work on a cloud of cuteness. With simple shapes, pastel colours and texts such as ‘Pure Love’ and ‘Ik ben even boodschappen doen’ (‘I’m just doing the shopping’), she creates a moment of confusion and wonder. In fact, the colours she uses and the themes she explores were unfamiliar to the art world in the 1980s. Even today, she challenges the male-dominated concept of art. Why can’t art be pastel-coloured or about light-hearted subjects? Behind the apparent simplicity and cheerfulness of her work, therefore, lies much, much more; their ‘cuteness’ is a powerful statement.

In Kunstwerkje, Van der Stokker addresses the viewer directly: ‘Hé, jij daar’ (‘Hey, you there’), it reads, next to the cursive letters that spell out ‘Kunstwerkje’. Does she mean the viewer? A long blue arrow directs your gaze further, to a drawing on the wall that reads: ‘Ik vind dat ik maar weer eens een nieuw brilmontuur moet kopen op de Amstelveense weg.’ (‘I think I should buy a new pair of glasses on the Amstelveensweg.’) Floral patterns and endearing words draw you into the artist’s daily musings.

Lily van der Stokker (1954)
Kunstwerkje, 2006/2024
Acrylic paint and pencil on paper
Stedelijk Museum Schiedam

Image: Lily van der Stokker, Kunstwerkje, 2006, Photograph: Aad Hoogendoorn