Cool Waters

In Koele Wateren at Museum Gouda, water takes center stage as a force that shapes, protects, and at the same time continuously threatens the Netherlands. The exhibition brings together a selection of 38 paintings and 1 medal from the Rijksmuseum collection, showing across four centuries of visual art how water appears as friend and foe, as landscape, as infrastructure, and as an elusive natural phenomenon. Relatively lesser known works by artists including Jan van Goyen, Salomon van Ruysdael, Hendrik Willem Mesdag, Jacob Maris, and Isaac Israels are presented alongside works from Museum Gouda’s own collection.

What makes the exhibition distinctive is that it not only looks back, but also draws a line toward the future. Alongside historical paintings, Koele Wateren raises the question of what the Netherlands will look like as sea levels continue to rise, and how a country so deeply shaped by water must once again come to terms with its own vulnerability. In this way, the exhibition becomes more than a presentation of highlights from the Rijksmuseum. It reveals how deeply water is embedded in the Dutch imagination, history, and future. Within this context, my work N.A.P. is given a special place alongside a work by Rembrandt.

Museum Gouda
Oosthaven 9
2801 PB Gouda

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