Madé van Krimpen presents Helena van der Kraan’s new solo exhibition, which will officially open on Friday 5 September during Gallery Night from 17:00 to 20:00.
Helena van der Kraan (1940–2020) captured the quiet beauty of everyday life. In her still lifes, natural light gently shapes a chair, a bottle, or a window, turning ordinary objects into bearers of intimacy and memory.
Her photographs balance calm and tension, presence and absence. They recall seventeenth-century Dutch painting, but without grandeur. For Helena, a bottle remains simply a bottle, its meaning found in its own presence.
Quiet Longing brings together a selection of her photographs that embody this stillness and subtle desire. Images where ordinary things hold a sense of waiting, tenderness, and time passing.
Themes of love, friendship, and memory run throughout her work. With a refined sense of light, shadow and composition she created images that appear effortless yet resonate deeply.
After leaving Czechoslovakia in 1968, Van der Kraan studied at Ateliers ’63 in Haarlem. She lived and worked in the Netherlands until her passing in 2020.