When I Was You – about beauty, connection and comfort

Exhibition 2 December 2025 – 29 March 2026

A characteristic of the art of the museum’s namesake Henk Chabot (1894-1949) is his humanist vision, a quality that the museum recognises in many of the works in psychotherapists Annelies and Bob van Eerd’s art collection.

Art as beauty and consolation

For the collectors, the experience of art and the emotions it evokes bring an inspirational dimension to life. They empathise with the ques tion Wim Kayzer asked various authors, scientists, philosophers, biologists and artists in his now legendary television series Van de Schoonheid en de Troost (About Beauty and Comfort, 2000): what makes life worthwhile? For them, art, music and nature are the answer: these are the essence of life.

Similarly inspirational for the collectors are the ideas of Belgian psychiatrist Dirk de Wachter. Art is vitally important for him: ‘From the moment we comprehend our own mortality, we begin to depict it and describe it, and to dance and play music to put it into perspective.’ For De Wachter, a person is a ‘hall of mirrors of identities’, while an open mind is crucial for genuine personal contact. This applies equally to art, which is often impossible to condense in one specific interpretation.

A plea for dialogue and encounter

The exhibition theme is a loose interpretation based on the title of a piece by Elly Strik: When I Was You. In her work, two figures meet in a garden-like setting. The exhibition aims to engage visitors through personal encounters with art. It is like a hall of mirrors: while all the exhibits can be interpreted in various ways, they are above all an appeal for meaningful contact. Each work offers an opportunity in its own way for personal reflection on the subjects of beauty, connection and comfort.

The exhibition includes work by: Marjolijn van den Assem, Gijs Assmann, Hannah van Bart, Sjoerd Buisman, Henk Chabot, Piet Hein Eek, Guido Geelen, Nour-Eddine Jarram, Shivangi Kalra, Hans Klein Hofmeijer, Jenetta de Konink, Maartje Korstanje, Arno Kramer, Katinka Lampe, Lotte van Lieshout, Marc Mulders, Arnulf Rainer, Tamar Rozenblat, Ingrid Simons, Eva Spierenburg, Julius Stibbe, Elly Strik, Aline Thomassen, Henk Visch, Reinoud van Vught, Marenne Welten, Ossip Zadkine, Robert Zandvliet, Ronald Zuurmond.

Hannah van Bart, ‘The Man, The Trees, The Light’ (2013), oil on canvas.

At the top: Elly Strik, ‘When I Was You’ (2011-2015), dried fruit, papier-maché, graphite, oil and pigments on paper, foto by Guy LHeureux.