SITTARD, THE NETHERLANDS.- Museum Het Domein presents Hub. Leufkens (1894- 1962) - An enterprising photographer and film maker, on view through February 25, 2007. Hubert Leufkens, the Heerlen photographer and film maker, loved the scenery of Limburg. He wanted to capture the beauty of the region before it was engulfed by industrialization and modernization. But he also had an unerring eye for the aesthetics of industrial design. As an enterprising artist, he responded to developments in his environment such as the burgeoning Catholicism, budding tourism and expanding industry. Leufkens created wonderful photo essays of the above and below ground mining industry, which began taking root in Limburg in the first half of the twentieth century. He also photographed the landscape of Java extensively during his nine-year stay there.

Contemporaries typified Leufkens as a versatile artist, a man able to find beauty in the unlikeliest of places and an artist who taught his audience to ‘see’. In the nineteen twenties, thirties and forties, countless positive reviews of his work appeared in newspapers and magazines and, although Leufkens’ work was highly appreciated at the time he was not to enjoy national renown in his own lifetime. Recent scholarly research, however, underlines the pivotal role played by Leufkens’ films and photographs in shaping the face of Limburg, its important part in the region’s cultural heritage and its considerable aesthetic quality. His singular photographic style has gained Leufkens an unparalleled place in Dutch photography: neither a typical Pictorialist nor a unique product of the New Photography, Leufkens fused both approaches into an idiosyncratic visual language.

Exhibitions, publication, film and activities - Three exhibitions will focus on Leufkens’ work in winter 2006-2007. Museum Het Domein concentrates on the authentic Limburg that Leufkens portrays in his photos. The Limburgs Museum in Venlo is hosting a retrospective on the life and work of the photographer and film maker and the Glaspaleis in Heerlen will be presenting photos of architecture and industry which highlight Leufkens’ manoeuvrings in the tense area between traditional and modern photography. Images from Leufkens’ films will also be screened in all three exhibitions.

A richly illustrated publication based on recent research by Leentje Mostert accompanies the exhibitions. A DVD included in the book contains, in full, Leufkens’ last film: South Limburg, land of orchid and nightingale. During the time of the exhibitions TV broadcasting station L1 will also pay attention to Hub. Leufkens.

Fragments from Leufkens’ colour films will also be presented in a film edited for the project, entitled Bronze green and black otherwise. Limburg in films by Leufkens and contemporaries. Leufkens’ footage is presented alongside fragments from news reports, mining films, and city news bulletins that reveal how Limburg and its inhabitants were ‘portrayed’ between 1920-1960. The film will be screened in the Limburgs Museum, other museums, and film houses in and outside Limburg.

This project is the result of a unique partnership between the Limburgs Museum, Museum Het Domein, the Glaspaleis, Rijckheyt, Centre for Regional History, Vitruvianum, Centre for Architecture in the Maas-Rhine Euregion, the Limburgs Film- en Videoarchief (LiFVA) and the University of Maastricht. The choice of locations for the three exhibitions reflects Leufkens’ life: Heerlen was his birthplace and where he lived and worked, Sittard was the site of his collection of film and photographs, which found its eventual resting place in Venlo. The project (exhibitions, film, documentary, publication and accompanying educational activities) rekindled interest in an enterprising artist who had somewhat fallen into obscurity but who, to this very day, was instrumental in shaping the face of Limburg both within and outside the province.

A number of educational and flanking activities will be held alongside the foregoing presentations (lectures, workshops). On 26 November there will be a T-Time in Het Domein (12.30-14.00) which will screen Leufkens’ film South Limburg, land of orchid and nightingale. Frank Holthuizen of the Limburgs Film en Video Archief (LIFVA) and the Limburgs Museum will give an explanatory talk.