Gili Crouwel

Who are you and what is your affinity with art?

My name is Gili Crouwel and I am the director and founder of The Gallery Club, a platform for photography. My affinity with art came while I was raised, because both my parents worked within the art world. I grew up in an environment where it was all about art and from an early age I was taken everywhere that had anything to do with art: openings, museums, galleries, Biennales, etc. Sometimes I couldn't yet fully appreciate it, especially when I was younger, but gradually that changed and I decided at the age of 14 that I wanted to study art history. 

How did your passion for photography begin?

My passion for photography comes from my mother. She used to be the curator of KPN's art collection, which has had its focus on photography since the 1990s. Ocassionally, I went along with her when she went to galleries, for exampl ewhen she visited Adriaan ten Have (Torch Gallery), who at the time represented Anton Corbijn and Inez van Lamsweerde. When I studied art history, I came across the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher and their students from the Düsseldorfer Schule: Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky. There, a whole new world of photography opened up for me. I wrote my graduation thesis about the Bechers, their students and influence on contemporary photography.

Do you also collect privately?

I also collect privately, although collecting may be too big a word for me. I have works by Bernd and Hilla Becher, Charlotte Dumas, Viviane Sassen, Albárran Cabrera, Ed van der Elsken, Bruce Davidson, but also by Ger van Elk, Lawrence Weiner, Tim Ayres, Hans Broek and Anton Henning. There is not really a red thread connecting the works that I collect, although in recent years the focus has increasingly shifted to photography. If I have the opportunity to buy something, that is mainly work with which I really feel a very clear bond and which I find beautiful. And of course I also have a wish list of photographers whose work I would like to purchase, for example the work of Dana Lixenberg.

Do you think it is important to show art in a company and why?

It is extremely important to let employees of a company come into contact with art. Art enriches your life, lets you look at the world around you in another and puts things in a different perspective. Visual arts can change a dull white space in no time into an inspiring environment. Certainly in the corporate world I can imagine that it can be very stimulating to step into an entirely different world from time to time, namely that of the visual arts.