Located in the roof of the Frans Hals Museum’s Hal location, De Bovenkamer (The Upstairs Room) hosts a guest curator on an annual basis, who makes a visual story based on the museum’s collection. For this year, Aart Taminiau dived into the collection and went on a voyage of discovery.

Taminiau made a reconstruction of the origin of the painting Old Lady with Masks, which is attributed to the Belgian painter James Ensor. Is it a work by this artist himself, or might his good friend Willy Finch have painted it? And what role does Frans Hals play in the oeuvre of both men? Taminiau shows his view on Old Lady with Masks, as seen through the eyes of art historian Herbert van der Zalm.

Aart Taminiau (1982) is a Dutch illustrator, filmmaker and animator. In his work, he uses a dip pen and East Indian ink – tools that are atypical for his generation. Taminiau is responsible for the creation of the graphic novel De kraker, de agent, de jurist en de stad (‘The squatter, the policeman, the lawyer and the city’; 2014) and the cartoon story Wol (‘Wool’; 2016), both published by De Bezige Bij.

In location Hof, the exhibition Frans Hals and the Moderns is on view from 13 October 2018 – 24 February 2019, for which Taminiau made an animation film (seen on the left) and illustrations throughout the exhibition.