MiradenHartog
drypoint - etchings - sculptures - illustrations
Highlights
A small collection of events from my artistry that were not only an important step in my work, but were also memorable for me personally. Because they delivered a story, influenced me or sometimes gave the idea that for a moment everything fell into place.
Exhibition Art dealer Juffermans Utrecht
With lithographs by Jeroen Hermkens
and prints by Mira den Hartog
April 25 to May 17, 2025
"The only way is up"
Cartoon about lack of space, with infrastructure as the subject.
For Vrij Nederland, the monthly magazine, April 2025
Five artists were commissioned to make a drawing about the lack of space in the Netherlands for everything that needs to be solved, such as housing, nature, infrastructure, etc.
"The only way is up", because there is still space there. However, going up will also cause the necessary problems, such as air traffic, space/peace for birds, who wants such a structure in their backyard, etc. That is why the pipes get stuck in complicated knots, referring to the Gordian knot and the drawing has become a search picture
Front page Vrij Nederland - the week
Published online on Friday, January 24, 2025
And as an illustration of Thijs Broer's political analysis.
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Graffa Gallery
My Prints is represented at a new gallery
(photo section of a newsletter)
Mainstreet Art Gallery
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My prints and drawings are represented by this online gallery
2nd publication in de Volkskrant
Newspaper
Saturday 7 November 2020
Following the hijacking of # ditismijnzorg
First Publication of my illustration in de Volkskrant
from Saturday 3 October 2020
Following the column by Aleid Truijens about 'the Reading Disaster' in Dutch education
Jury Prize BAS Graphics Prize 2014
After a period in 2014 where I hardly worked in my studio
to have, I seized the general call for participation
to the annual graphic prize of Bussines Art Service
to make a fresh start again.
I was very pleased with the result and submitted it.
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To my great surprise, I was not only one of the ten nominees, but I also turned out to have won the jury prize.
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At the festive opening of the exhibition of Bussines Art Service in Raamsdonksveer, I heard from the jury members that my work was normally too small in size, which led to a heated discussion about whether it should be disqualified.
However, the jury was so impressed with my entry that, as they said, "they simply couldn't ignore it."
And so that year, for the first time, a jury prize was awarded
News - Winner BAS Graphics Prize 2014 - Kunst.nl
Writer and poet HC ten Berge - 'A second introduction'
In the first year of the academy we were commissioned to make a print based on one of the Eskimo stories, written by HC ten Berge. I chose the story about a mother who is eaten by her own child immediately after giving birth (see result below left)
Twelve years later I had an exhibition in Gallery "De Leesb Library" in Zutphen; the city where I grew up, where I exhibited together with Pamela McAdam.
What I didn't know was that she was ten Berge's wife, until he appeared at the opening of the exhibition and was introduced to him
Jan Wolkers
Collaboration Jan Wolkers and graphic artist Rien van der Nat
What not many people knew at the time is that I contributed to the print that Rien van der Nat made for Wolkers' poem "Winter Flight".
Nl .: a sketchy etching of a bent forward bare male torso (in the brown surface), which he incorporated in his print.
Of course Jan Wolkers knew about this
Publication in AD / Utrechts Nieuwsblad - by Jan Juffermans sr.
announcement Exhibition Kunsthandel Juffermans 2004
I hardly knew what was happening to me; a successful exhibition, ushered in by a two-day opening. Which attracted prominent art lovers from Utrecht and surroundings and I had, for example, a cheerful conversation with Leen Timp and Mies Bouwman. In conclusion, they emphasized their admiration for and interest in my work once again
Publication Utrechts Nieuwsblad , by Thea Figee Graduation exhibition 2000
Meeting with the Flemish writer Hugo Raes in 2000 - my graduation year
In my graduation thesis I wanted to devote a chapter to the Flemish writer Hugo Raes, because my graduation work was partly inspired by his short fantastic - read: fantasy - stories.
I wrote a letter to his Dutch publisher: de Bezige Bij, with a request for additional information about the writer (besides what I could find in the library - that was still the case in the pre-internet time)
After a week or two or three I started to get angry because there was no response to my letter. When, to my great surprise, Hugo Raes himself left a message on my voicemail
After I called him back he said how happy he was with my request. Because after a ten-year writer's block he had started again on a new book and the interest of a young person in his work, out of the blue, did him very well.
Some time later I was allowed to visit him in his home in Hoboken, Antwerp for a conversation, in which he took me along the stories and memorable moments in his life. While enjoying a Belgian special beer, of course.
I hardly used the list of questions that I had on my lap.
I had brought a folder with work to show him how I worked out the inspiration through his stories in my prints.
I went home without a folder, thinking that perhaps one of those pictures on the drawing room wall would end up in his living room. Who knows even next to a drawing by his friend and one of the Netherlands' fantastic artists; Peter Vos.
After this meeting there was a short exchange of correspondence, after which the contact diluted.
Reading that last book, on which he was still working at the time, I have always postponed to this day. Knowing that no new book will be published.