MAASTRICHT.- Museum aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht presents an exhibition of Dutch artist and designer Ted Noten. With the oeuvre-exhibition 'TED', the museum shows the versatility of the idiosyncratic artist. Bags, jewelry, 3D-printed objects, but also installations, projections and photography. The exhibition, during and around the international TEFAF art fair, takes place from 1 March to 19 August 2018.
The exhibition 'TED' gives the public the opportunity to take a tour through the creative brain of artist Ted Noten. The visitor begins in a waiting room and ends in a recovery room. The various cabinets and period rooms, that are so characteristic of Museum aan het Vrijthof, lend themselves perfectly to show a different aspect of the artist at every turn. In addition, new and unknown work of the artist will also exhibited.
Ted Noten (1956 Swalmen, Limburg) is one of the most idiosyncratic artists of the moment. His autonomous work has been extensively awarded and included in the collections of a large number of museums, among which the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Stedelijk Museum 's-Hertogenbosch and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 2012 he was proclaimed ‘Artist of the Year’ by Stichting Kunstweek.
Worldwide his translucent acrylic bags - often made with materials from luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Prada, in which animals, jewels, cocaine and weapons are enclosed - have tempted collectors, confused authorities, inspired colleagues and challenged students. Beauty and violence, perfection and decay; these are recurring themes ever since he made the famous necklace in which a mouse wearing pearls was contained.
With his work Ted Noten mixes street language with the strict marching order of the catwalk. He knows how to connect these within his oeuvre, revealing both the attraction and hypocrisy of the museum, fashion or bourgeois morality. As always, with his designs he raises questions about convention and habituation; about the obvious and the unusual.
