Dossier - Lily van der Stokker
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Lily van der Stokker
1954, Den Bosch - Amsterdam / New York

The wall paintings and drawings by the internationally acclaimed Lily van der Stokker are unique. Her work is dominated by charming flowers, baby-pink clouds and devastatingly empty words, such as ‘hi’, ‘love’ and ‘kiss’. With these elements, Van der Stokker conjures up a world that is personal, magical and coquettish; a little girl’s world. Initially, she places this in opposition to the conceptual art of the 1980s, which she considers authoritarian and intellectual.
Armed with this fully-formed visual language of decorative motifs and fluorescent colours, and through her original choice of subjects, Van der Stokker ridicules both male chauvinism and boastfulness in art, as well as the scepticism of critics and theoreticians who arrogantly dismiss art as dead. Her themes are very ‘real’: ‘family’, ‘friendship’, ‘having babies (or not)’ and, last but not least, ‘growing older’, as demonstrated in the wall painting with sofa ‘Jack is 60 (I am 44)’ (1998).
Following the group exhibition ‘Provisorium I’ (1999), the museum acquired the wall painting with sofa ‘Jack is 60’ (1998), the freestanding epoxy sculpture ‘Meeting’ (1997) and a series of seven drawings (1990-1998). In 2004, the artist created a six-metre high, two-part wall painting in the Cupola, entitled ‘Uncle Jan, Auntie Annie’.
Oom Jan, Tante Annie, 2004

Images
Collection Bonnefantenmuseum
Oom Jan, Tante Annie, 2004
Our friends Elise Tak and Arnold Mosselman (ontwerp voor muurschildering met doos), 1998
1980-1981 Monument for the past (ontwerp voor muurschildering met twee banken), 1998
Vergaderen, 1997
Niet gemakkelijk (ontwerp voor muurschildering voor kantoor), 1993
Interesting good things (ontwerp voor muurschildering), 1992
Hallelujah! (ontwerp voor muurschildering), 1990-1991
Friendly good (ontwerp voor muurschildering, 1990
De sociale dienst (ontwerp voor muurschildering), 1988
Jack is 60, 1998