Ukraine’s First Lady opens exhibition by Hoogsteder in Kyiv

16 May – 16 August 2024
The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts, Kyiv, Ukraine

On 16 May, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska opened the exhibition The Hague-Kyiv in a closely guarded Khanenko National Museum of Arts in Kyiv, Ukraine. The exhibition features 31 paintings from Willem Jan Hoogsteder’s private collection and was organized specially for Ukraine. All paintings were made around 1900 in The Hague, City of Peace and Justice.

With the exhibition, Hoogsteder wished to give the people of Ukraine encouragement and an opportunity for a couple of hours not to feel like they’re living in a war. Because many museums in Kyiv are empty, and have been since the start of the Russian invasion.

The exhibition is also presented in gratitude to Ukrainians for the sacrifices they are making for our peace. To show them that they aren’t making their stand alone. For Ukrainians, culture is about more than beauty: it also represents freedom. In her opening speech, the First Lady called the opening of the exhibition ‘The triumph of culture over destruction’. Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, who was in attendance as well, was equally empathic in his speech: ‘This exhibition is just as important as a battery of Patriot missiles. Perhaps even more important.’

In Ukraine, more people have heard of The Hague than of Amsterdam. It is the city where they intend to establish a tribunal to try the war crimes Russia is committing against Ukraine. To show what The Hague is about, the exhibition therefore also includes 23 works by The Hague-photographer Piet Gispen. Jan van Zanen, mayor of The Hague, wrote the forward for the accompanying catalogue.