MAASTRICHT .- Beating around the bush is the title of the 2014 exhibition programme in which the Bonnefantenmuseum is presenting its collection in an investigative way. The breadth and depth of the collection is being explored, by bringing both its fixed values and its 'quiet reserve' into dialogue with new and proposed acquisitions and with small solo presentations that function as mirrors to reflect the collection. Episode #2 revolves around solo presentations by Johan Creten, Pierre Huyghe, Ien Lucas, Rebecca Morris and Lara Schnitger.

In Beating around the bush Episode #2, the focus is on the way in which different notions of materiality, sensory perception and meaning can relate to one another in visual art. Whereas the figurative idiom dominated Episode #1, the emphasis in this episode is on abstraction. The exhibition shows how artists can explore fundamental aesthetic aspects of form, colour, material, volume, light and sound, and how the resulting artworks can manifest themselves as vehicles of imagination, mental depth and even criticism.

The Flemish sculptor Johan Creten (1963 Sint Truiden – Paris) is showing Gulden Snede (2010-2013), a 13-part series of ceramic sculptures. Creten made this series in his workshop in Paris, and finished them with gold lustre in the Struktuur 68 workshops in The Hague in the period between 2010 and 2013. Gulden Snede shows a very direct relationship between the artist and the material.

The Bonnefantenmuseum recently acquired the installation Crystal Cave (2009-2013) by the French artist Pierre Huyghe (1962, Paris). The Bonnefantenmuseum is also presenting Huyghe's film Forest of lines from 2008. Huyghe's exhibitions can be conceived as moments of experience, where new unexpected realities may present themselves to the viewer, and in which reality and fiction continually overlap.

Although the oeuvre of the Limburg artist Ien Lucas (Echt, 1955) looks very diverse, it is characterised by her urge to experiment and the role she gives to chance. In the solo presentation Front Attack, Lucas exhibits large canvases with beautiful abstract patterns that exude an exciting warmth.

The solo presentation Southafternoon shows twelve recent paintings (2009-2013) by the American artist Rebecca Morris (Honolulu 1969 - Los Angeles). Her abstract works are remarkable for their original language of form and use of fresh summery colours. Morris' work has also been exhibited at the Whitney Biennale in New York. Southafternoon will be accompanied by a publication (18 euro).

The room-sized installation Jackson's Nightmare is being exhibited alongside new work by Lara Schnitger (1969 Haarlem – Los Angeles/Amsterdam).

Beating around the bush Episode #2 with artworks by: Tony Cragg, Johan Creten, István Csákány, René Daniëls, Richard Deacon, Jan Dibbets, Bob Eikelboom, Guido Geelen, Mary Heilmann, Camille Henrot, Pierre Huyghe, Gary Hume, Suchan Kinoshita, Ien Lucas, Marijn van Kreij, Sol LeWitt, Mark Manders, Rebecca Morris, Chaim van Luit, Robert Mangold, Katja Mater, Lei Molin, Hermann Nitsch, Navid Nuur, Laura Owens, Antonietta Peeters, Robert Ryman, Lara Schnitger, Richard Serra, Peter Struycken, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, Sanne Vaassen and Evi Vingerling.