Cyril Lixenberg survey exhibition | at Grand Valley State University

Fri, Aug 23 - Fri, Nov 1  2013

Grand Valley State University Art Gallery - Chicago Consulate Region

A unique exhibition at Grand Valley State University will explore and celebrate 81 years of the life and work of the popular contemporary Dutch artist Cyril Lixenberg, from Amsterdam. Click here to view the online interactive exhibition catalog.

The artist will attend the opening reception for the exhibition “Cyril Lixenberg: An Artist’s Journey,” on September 11, from 5-7 p.m. in the Art Gallery, Performing Arts Center, Allendale Campus. The event kicks off Grand Valley’s popular Fall Arts Celebration.

While the Allendale exhibition is ongoing from August 23 – November 1, concurrent satellite exhibitions will be mounted at sister institutions throughout West Michigan. The artist has a long history of involvement with area communities since the mid-1980s, including Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Holland and Saugatuck.

• Calvin College, Center Art Gallery 
  (September 3 – October 19)
  Dissected Geometry: The Interaction of Forms in the Work of Cyril Lixenberg
• Saugatuck Center for the Arts
  (August 24 – November 9)
  Point Counterpoint: Cyril Lixenberg Screen Prints
• Grand Rapids Art Museum 
  (August 16 – October 27)
  Cyril Lixenberg: The Story of Steel Water
• Muskegon Museum of Art 
  (August  23 – November 1)
  Contemporary Showcase: Prints by Cyril Lixenberg

Lixenberg’s monumental sculptures and colorful screen prints are exhibited throughout Grand Valley’s campuses, including the iconic bright yellow “Amaranth’ sculpture created in 2002 for the Allendale Campus, and the towering “Magela-S,” made for ArtPrize 2010 and exhibited on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus. Lixenberg is also well known for his 2007 riverfront sculpture “Steel Water,” a major commission that commemorates Grand Rapids as the first city in the world to add fluoride to its water.

Grand Valley has the largest collection of Lixenberg’s works anywhere, due in part to the artist’s generosity and his long-term friendship with Grand Valley’s Director of Galleries and Collections Henry Matthews, who he first met in 1984. In 2001, in memory of his late wife Saskia, the artist contributed to Grand Valley’s collections more than 300 of his own works on paper created over the previous 40 years.

“This initial donation by Cyril triggered the creation of Grand Valley’s Print & Drawing Cabinet, which has attracted other significant gifts,” said Matthews.

“Cyril has not only been a generous donor, but he has shared freely of himself by mentoring students, judging art competitions and hosting study abroad students, faculty and staff at his Amsterdam home and studio.”

Grand Valley’s retrospective exhibition will include selections from Lixenberg’s most recent gift of nearly 140 of his early paintings, drawings, prints, monoprints and personal archival materials, to provide an enlightening view of the artist’s evolution to the successful contemporary artist he is today.

Learn more about the artist in a Grand Valley Magazine profile here.