Carolien Smit

“I think there’s definitely been a shift in looking at art in the past 10 years. The digital and online world has grown, has become more interesting and more important. This not only influences how enthusiasts and viewers absorb art, but also artists and artistic practice.”

Carolien Smit, owner and co-founder We Like Art

You are the owner and founder of We Like Art together with Michiel Hogenboom! How did your affinity with art begin?

In 2010, Michiel and I posted our first blog on welikeart.nl. Now, ten years later, We Like Art is well-known within the art scene. I am proud of all collaboration and great projects that we’ve set up, both small-scaled as well as large pop-up exhibitions. Video portraits of artists, fantastic studio visits and of course all those beautiful special editions. We’ve made hundreds of people happy in recent years with work in circulation by leading artists. Since 2010, we’ve grown into an online art platform and publisher of artist editions. Around 12,000 art enthusiasts follow us faithfully and intensively, from first time buyers to experienced collectors. Time for a party actually - for this 10th anniversary!

It’s hard to say exactly how my affinity with art started. As a child I loved to draw and paint. I remember that I liked going to art auctions with my father. He never really bought anything there, but my father's special interest was paintings by the artist Von Dulmen Krumpelman, from Drenthe. In high school, my drawing teacher was a grandson of exactly that painter, funny right!

One of the first exhibitions that at least made a great impression was at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague; 'From Monet to Matisse'. During my study Art & Art Policy in Groningen my passion for contemporary art started to be stimulated. I was enormously spoiled to have been in Groningen at that time (from 1995) with, for example, a guest lecture by Marina Abramovic—as her work was then on display in the Groninger Museum. What else was on show there? Andres Serrano, Inez van Lamsweerde, Larry Clark, Peter Struycken, Jeff Koons. The layout of the exhibition (all those colored walls!) played a major role for me. I found the exhibition by fashion designer Alaïa in 1997 great, I remember that very well.

After studying, I conducted research at AkzoNobel about how a company collection works for employees. My first job was then at the AkzoNobel Art Foundation. Together with Hester I discovered the entire ‘(art)world’ and learned so much! Twenty years later and I’m invited to create this Highlights page, how nice!

What do you think have been the biggest changes in the art world, recently?

I think there’s definitely been a shift in looking at art in the past 10 years. The digital and online world has grown, has become more interesting and more important. This not only influences how enthusiasts and viewers absorb art, but also artists and artistic practice.

The world of digital and video art, with the "Ed Atkinsen" as an example for many art students, it seems, creates new worlds like in a game. And up and coming artists can take in – so to speak - exhibitions and artworks from the entire world via Instagram and YouTube, now more than ever!

Online information is very important. Look at this beautiful website, where the AkzoNobel art collection is unlocked in all sorts of ways. This gives a great first impression which will inspire you to visit the Art Space in person.

Visual art can not exist without a direct experience, that is paramount. But once you have met the artworks, you can easily find additional information online, more works by a particular artist, exhibition images, an interview with that artist, a virtual glimpse into an artist's studio. Isn't that great?

What is still on your wish list?

Regarding We Like Art, I look forward to the editions that we are going to develop this year with artists, to the meetings, conversations and studio visits that precede this.

This year, we started with the Collect the Collection project for the AkzoNobel Art Foundation. In honor of their anniversary (25 years of collecting art within AkzoNobel), we are going to develop artworks in editions, together with several artists, for AkzoNobel’s employees.These special editions are based on artworks from the collection that are labeled as darlings. A very nice assignment with a personal touch, because part of those 25 years of collecting art naturally coincides with part of my life and career. You don't come up with something like that yourself, but could have been on my wish list.

Of course, there are artists on my wish list to experience a special We Like Art edition. For example, we are soon announcing 2 special special editions of Katinka Lampe #wishlist!

Personally, it’s also on my wish list to go to the MoMA and the TATE again, since it’s been a while. And I still have to go to the new space of Tim van Laere Gallery and to the LAM.

What are your most precious art-related memories of the past years?

Peronally, it's the moment I fall for an artwork, sometimes instantly or sometimes after it haunts my head (and in my heart) for weeks or months; the moment you decide to buy it; and then the moment you walk around with that artwork at home to give it the perfect place. Once it's at home, it fascinates you, while other artworks around it also offer a new perspective on that one piece of art and, of course, among eachother.

Another great memory is when I went to Antwerp for a weekend. It was Museum Night, that makes it extra fun. We saw Paul Kooiker's work in his solo in FoMu, there was also a beautiful exhibition in MUHKA, I remember a beautiful painting by Borremans, and there was Antwerp Photo with works by Michael Wolf and Dirk Braeckman, among others.

Memories of certain exhibitions that I have seen: To name one, at the Venice Biennale (where we led the board with the AkzoNobel Art Foundation), with an exhibition by Kiki Smith - Homespun Tales at Fondazione Querini Stampalia in 2005.

As far as We Like Art is concerned, that is the memory of the moments when an exhibition is finished. Sometimes after days of preperations and painting walls. Once everything hangs perfectly, the price signs are stuck on the wall and visitors can come and have a look. Another favorite were the different 'Shows' we made in the Machine Building on Westergasterrein in Amsterdam.

Martijn Schuppers | #0117
2001 | acrylic paint, alkyd, oil paint on polyester canvas
180 x 200 CM

"I found the work of Martijn Schuppers fascinating from the first moment I first saw it. Abstract works on canvas, which always show an illusion of depth and structure in the surface. He applies multiple layers of paints and dissolves it again.With huge brushes or with air from an empty airbrush, one layer of paint 'gives way' to the other, creating a kind of rock of color, with sharpness and vague parts, illusions of holes and deposits. The first artworks was a small painting by Martijn Schuppers, which I am still very happy with. "

Elspeth Diederix | Kay's Hand
2016 | inkjet print
40 x 60 CM

"I can't really choose from a work by Elspeth Diederix. 'Floating leaf' and 'Silver sun' are very early works from her, from 1997/1998, but so simple and powerful. They are engraved in my memory. At least a hundred times I told about this during tours at AkzoNobel, I think "Kay's hand" is a wonderfully moving work, so recognizable, a child's hand with paint. Time flies.

I love how Elspeth uses the flowers and plants world in her work, and with The Miracle Garden project she really goes one step further. Here, photography and nature come together. She creates miracles in the Erasmus Park in Amsterdam West. With her gardening education, she has really focused on gardening. She uses the special flowers and plants that she grows there in her artworks, and then those impressive photos can be seen on billboards throughout Amsterdam. Together with the garden, these are two gifts for the city."

Hans Op de Beeck | My five favourite small buildings
2005 | painted wood
90 x 167 CM

"I love the works by Hans Op de Beeck. The first time I saw his work was in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 2001. It was a huge installation of 10 by 15 meters where you had to look through a kind of peephole. It seems as if I was looking out the window and the neighborhood in which I had just walked through had suddenly changed within a few minutes into a completely deserted and decayed neighborhood. From the moment I've seen 'My five favourite small buildings'', I see them everywhere, this beautiful 'spooky' houses."

Prudencio Irazabal | Fugue #5
2000 | acrylic paint on canvas on wood
176 x 153 CM

Prudencio Irazabal's work is one of my favorites. Like a sky with thousands of colors, a sun that creates spots before your eyes. Layer over layer, over layer, almost like a 3D object. If you walk past it, it changes with you. Meeting the Spanish artist himself in New York while visiting The Armory Show makes it even more special. I recently saw the work again, because it's in the current exhibition at the open Art Space at AkzoNobel."

Ronald Ophuis | Wild Flowers
2016 | Oil paint on canvas
40 x 50 CM

"Ronald Ophuis wants to evoke the feeling that whatever is happening in his work is dreadful. It's difficult for me to tolerate most of his paintings, which is exactly what art can bring about. This painting shows an infinite darkness while the lightness of the flowers is like a reminder of those horrors without it hurting so much."⁠

Charlie Roberts | Picasso's Tomb
2006 | watercolor on paper
153 x 226 CM

"Charlie Roberts is a fantastic drawer, sculptor and painter. His work always makes me smile, wonderful. What a worlds he creates! "Picasso’s Tomb" is a huge work on paper, in which dozens of Picasso's artworks can be seen with his head at the top. The details that Roberts uses in his work are beautiful, as they often read like a comic. The figures cut from tree trunks are also great. We once showed a few during an exhibition. Enormous, somewhat clumsy, impressive things. After completing one of our exhibition in the Machine Building, they were packed in the last rays of the sun and could easily take on the entire space."