Remakes from the sixties (1995-2011)
In April 1966, the International Gallery OREZ held Henk Peeters’ solo exhibition ‘La dernière exposition”. Peeters wrote a short text prior to the exhibition: ‘The works exhibited are intended only as examples of mass-produced articles . . . which can be ordered in any size and any colour desired.’ A stamp on the back left room to fill in by hand the dates of design and manufacture and the number of the work – even though the edition was unlimited. Peeters announced the incineration of the original once the first ‘mass-produced article’ was sold and prepared a short text that was supposed to be read out: ‘The age of the unique work of art is over. . . . from now on I will no longer sign any work.’ The exhibition was the ultimate consequence of Peeters’ efforts to finish with authenticity, uniqueness and the status-dependent work of art. The exhibition at OREZ was the unofficial end to the international ZERO movement and the end of Peeters‘ activities as creating artist. At the end of 1966 Peeters destroyed all his “original” works and focused exclusively on his teaching at the Academy of Arts. The "remakes" are “original” copies made by Henk Peeters after his early works and where exhibited 2006 in Galerie De Zaal Delft.The numbers are not always correct, as Peeters did not care so much any longer: the edition was anyway endless! Shortly before his death Peeters and Tijs Visser decided to remake pyrographies especially for museums, in the same format as his largest works from the sixties.
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