What's On

Exhibitions

This year the National Ballet celebrates its 50th anniversary and one of the events marking this milestone is this exhibition of over 120 posters. They trace the development of poster design over the years and include works by designers such as Anton Beeke and Otto Treurmann and photographers such as Ingrid Baars and Erwin Olaf.

Poster Museum, Hoorn until April 15.

www.affichemuseum.nl

The Tunisian fashion designer makes the sort of elegant clothes every woman wants to wear. He is a favourite of Michelle Obama, for example. Yet he is seldom the subject of an exhibition because the 71-year-old designer avoids publicity as much as possible.

Despite this, the Groninger Museum is presenting its second display of Alaïa's clothes. This time the 64 items are from his 21st century designs. They are displayed according to material: velvet, black wool, black leather, white cotton, animal prints and exotic skins and the material he most famous for using, tricot.

Groninger Museum, Groningen until May 6.

www.groningermuseum.nl

Around 100 of the most important prints from the museum's own collection. They date from between 1890 and 1905 and include works by Bonnard, Vuillard, Denis, Steinlen and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam until September 23.

www.vangoghmuseum.nl

The British artist and film director Steve McQueen was invited by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam to come up with an idea to enhance the visibility of the museum in the run up to its reopening in September. The result is Blues Before Sunrise for which McQueen has replaced the normal white bulbs in the lighting around the building with blue bulbs.

McQueen's latest film, Shame, is currently in cinemas.

Museumplein, Amsterdam, March 7 until 25.

www.stedelijk.nl

The American Chuck Close (1940) has been making portraits of himself, family and friends such as composer Philip Glass and artist Alex Katz. He makes these portraits based on photos which he manipulates using printing techniques and new technology.

The exhibition features 130 portraits, including his recently produced photo-realistic carpets.

Kunsthal, Rotterdam until May 20.

www.kunsthal.nl

Guus Luijters and Aline Pennewaard have spent the past few years putting names to the nearly 18,000 Jewish, Roma and Sinti children deported from the Netherlands during World War II and murdered in Nazi camps. They also found photos of 3,000 of the children, restoring the identity of these lost souls. The photos together with all the names and the life stories of fifteen of the children make up this exhibition.

Stadsarchief, Amsterdam until May 20.

www.stadsarchief.nl

The first exhibition in the Netherlands of the work of the New York photographer Joel Sternfeld (1944), one of the pioneers of colour photography. It features hundreds of photos from ten different series from the 1970s, such as American Prospects made during a journey through the United States. The constant factor in his work is America and her people and the traces they leave in the landscape.

Foam, Amsterdam until March 14.

www.foam.org

Over 500 objects tell the story of 3000 years of Judaism. The exhibition sheds light on the main elements of Judaism and includes manuscripts, ceremonial objects, paintings and models.

Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam until April 15.

www.nieuwekerk.nl

The Swiss painter Paul Klee, with his early individual and controlled style and his later much wilder paintings, was an influence on the members of the Cobra group. This exhibition brings their work together, allowing the viewer to compare their styles and how they developed.

Cobra Museum, Amstelveen until April 22.

www.cobra-museum.nl

The futuristic opera Victory Over The Sun is the focal point of this exhibition. The Russian artist Kazimir Malevich designed the costumes and sets for the opera, which had its premier 1913. Lissitzky thought it would be possible to recast the piece as an electro-mechanical show. He designed a number of figurines and a dynamic stage set for these doll-like figures.

Lissitzky's designs are presented here in a three-dimensional form. In a portfolio of his designs for the opera - also on diisplay - Lissitzky gives instructions for anyone wanting to create models based on the illustrations. The Van Abbe Museum is the first to do so.

Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven until March 25.

www.vanabbemuseum.nl

Henny Boogert began her series of photos of student accommodation in various Dutch university towns. Over the past two years she has widened her approach to picture students in Russia, Kenya, Moldavia, Cuba, Bolivia, the Philippines and India. The results form a global social record of how these young people live and study.

The Melkweg, Amsterdam until February 26.

www.melkweg.nl

75 large paintings and 20 drawings by the three great Flemish masters and by a number of lesser painters such as Gerard Seghers and Michiel Sweerts are on loan from the collection of the Hermitage in St Petersburg.

They include Rubens' majestic Christ with Crown of Thorns and ten expressive portraits by Van Dyck.

The Hermitage, Amsterdam until June 15.

www.hermitage.nl

The Helmond-based Vlisco company has been producing colourful Dutch Wax textiles for the West African market since 1846. This exhibition shows how these fabrics became part of various West African cultures and found their way into international fashion, the visual arts and photography.

It touches the history of the textiles, Dutch colonial history, the differences and similarities between Western and non-Western cultures and sheds light on how visual artists such as Viviane Sussen and Yinka Shonibare as well as top international designers have been inspired by Vlisco's fabrics.

Modern Art Museum, Arnhem until May 7.

www.mmkarnhem.nl

Brightly coloured and finely wrought works by the great Japanese print artist Tsukioka Kõgyo (1869-1927). Kògyo was noted for his depictions of scenes from the great Noh plays but he also depicted animals and landscapes. Around 50 of his prints are on show together with four full-length roll paintings and a number of objects.

Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht until April 4.

www.bonnefanten.nl

Pavel Prokopchik spent two years taking photos of a group of young Russians who have turned away from politics and materialism and chosen an alternative life-style. Prokopchik photos show a new generation still seeking a way of life that allows them to escape from the clutches of a suffocating society.

Foam, Amsterdam until March 21.

www.foam.org

The world of Andy Warhol is shown in photographs by the man himself and those who were regulars at The Factory, such as David McCabe, Ron Gallela and Robert Mapplethorpe. Warhol's original studio The Factory was at the heart of the New York underground scene between 1962 and 1968 and attracted the movers and shakers of the period.

Kunsthal, Rotterdam until April 1.

www.kunsthal.nl

Willem Maris (1844-1910) was a leading member of The Hague school of painting, the most important Dutch art movement of the 19th century. He was also the only impressionist among them, using bright colours and loose brushwork for his images of the Dutch countryside.

This is the first solo exhibition of his work and includes 50 paintings and 30 drawings.

Gemeente Museum, The Hague until April 9.

www.gemeentemuseum.nl