To the sea: The sea in the Dutch art

Water is - and has always been - an integral part of the Netherlands. This duality can be seen in a new art exhibition in Haarlem about the beauty and the threat of eternal flowing water.
Storm at sea, wars fought on the water, coastal scenes: these themes thread through Dutch art from as far back as the Golden Age. Now Haarlem's De Hallen Gallery has decided to highlight it, in the retrospective To the sea - The sea in the Dutch art since 1850. The show features work by such artists as Hendrik Mesdag and Isaac Israëls, as well as early modernists like Jan Sluijters and Jan Toorop, and more recent artists such as Edgar Fernhout and Rineke Dijkstra.
The work - including paintings, works on paper, three-dimensional work, photographs and films - shows not only the beauty and vastness of water, but also the overwhelming and threatening sea.
To the sea - The sea in the Dutch art since 1850 runs until 2 september 2012 in De Hallen, Haarlem.