With this project I wanted to piece together a view of the
remaining plaster collection that used to be the significant
feature of the Royal Academy of Art The Hague up until the 1960s.
The collection was made up of over 6000 pieces from across Europe
and now only a small handful are known to remain in the academy
here today.
There is very little report about where the plaster collection
ended up, a few pieces were saved by the Allard Pierson Museum
in Amsterdam, and a few pieces remain until today in the family
homes of graduates and professors from the 1960s. Articles from
the 60s-80s which mention this moment are very sparse, they
mention the removal and destruction of the plaster collection,
but the published information doesn’t give any further view as
to what happened in 1964.
Through ongoing conversations I am trying to get a bigger picture
of this moment of destruction in the 60s and address it today. I
want to tell the story, the relational aspects that shape it along
the way are what interest me. In uncovering this story, I come to
see it as at a time when a lot of these stories could be lost
forever if not addressed at this moment when a great deal of the
alumni from the 1960s have passed away in the past years. I would
like to share this with them and a wider audience.
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