Lily van der Stokker - Air de Paris

FRIENDLY GOOD
STEDELIJK MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
OCTOBER 27, 2018 — FEBRUARY 24, 2019

The Stedelijk presents the first museum retrospective of Lily van der Stokker, featuring drawings and wall paintings from the late 1980s to the present.

Van der Stokker’s visual language of flowers, looping lines, clouds and curlicues in bold, bright colors, raises questions about what we regard as typically feminine. Her work can be placed in the tradition of feminist art, which does not conform to prevailing standards of good taste. As such, she often exploits concepts that are ‘banned’ from contemporary art, such as the frivolous and decorative. The exhibition Lily van der Stokker - Friendly Good is her most extensive presentation in a museum so far and most of the works have not been shown in the Netherlands before.

In addition to color, nods to tidiness and cleanliness in the domestic space are referenced in select sculptures with small shelves holding toilet paper rolls, precisely placed and untouched. The toilet paper rolls bring another element of low cultural status to the exhibition. While pleasant and tidy, they encapsulate the endeavors of the artist to present viewers with harmless imagery, while ultimately critiquing traditional roles of women.