For the first time, we presented a double exhibition: dedicated to stained glass from different eras, eighteen individual panes from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries from the Liberna Collection were presented in the Study Room, while four large-format stained-glass windows from 1939 by the renowned Roermond glass painter Joep Nicolas, originating from C&A Utrecht, were on display in the DAS Forum. Important additions were the original design drawings and written sources on the creation of the stained-glass windows from the Gemeentearchief in Roermond. The exhibition in the Study Room was also enriched by drawings and graphics.

This year’s theme “Shaping Transitions” is reflected in the material of glass itself: glass comes out of the furnace as a viscous mass and can be shaped and formed in this state. As a glass window, it permits a view from the inside to the outside, and vice versa, and thus becomes a symbolic medium of the inner and outer world, day and night, private and public. On the other hand, the selected panes show the transitions within the traditional craft, that is, how artists have adapted the material for themselves.  

 

In our eyes, the double exhibition was a complete success! We were able to broaden our own view of stained glass, a genre that is so underestimated within the art world—above all through contact with Joep Nicolas’s grandson. Communicating this fascination was therefore a major concern for us and, in our estimation, the spark was also ignited in the visitors!