Some university employees took it off the wall last week. It caused quite a stir because the action fits in with a broader trend of removing old works of art and statues that are offensive by today’s standards or no longer fit the spirit of the times. A trend that others vehemently oppose. The Executive Board speaks of a spontaneous action and the ‘starting point of a discussion’ about the work of art.
The 89-year-old artist Rein Dool found the removal ridiculous. VVD Member of Parliament Hatte van der Woude called it a ‘deeply sad action’ and raised the question: ‘Are images of men now prohibited?’ Job Cohen, former PvdA leader and son of the portrayed rector magnificus Dolf, then offered to give a ‘concise lecture’ about the painting and its context. Dolf Cohen survived World War II by going into hiding, which made the issue all the more painful.
Dool’s painting, which hangs in a conference room of the Academy Building, depicts the Executive Board from 1974, six weighty-looking old white men smoking cigars. The slightly caricatured rendering already contains a mild form of ridicule, Dool agrees; those men seem to think themselves very important. But that criticism would be too subtle for the contemporary viewer.
“Most of my career I’ve been in rooms with men and paintings of men,” Dean of Law Joanne van der Leun tweeted last week in response to a critical tweet from a Leiden PhD student on the painting. It could go away from her. “Besides, I hate the smoke, even if it’s just painted.”
Apparently, a discussion about the painting has been raging at the university for years. It is very filling in the small meeting room and ‘determining the image’, says a spokesperson. ‘You can almost see the men looking over your shoulder. It is no longer of this time. That leads to irritation among some employees.’
A few days after the tweets, a number of employees, including Professor Koen Caminada, decided that the painting should be removed from the wall. “Done!” Caminada tweeted Thursday, including a photo of the painting upside down against the wall.
‘The university is not simply guided by a few tweets, but we are also not blind to a discussion among our employees,’ says the spokesperson. ‘We temporarily hang the painting back to protect it. After a broad discussion, a decision will then be taken on what to do with the work of art.’