The first comprehensive institutional tribute to the painter, sculptor, and draftsman Arie van Selm offers a cross-section of his creative phases from around 1980 until his sudden and unexpected death this year. The exhibition showcases the work of a world-traveling artist who, in the transition from the 20th to the 21st century, navigated between the expression of inner states and the observation of nature and the environment. It brings together all five types of his bronze-cast crows created since 2011 and presents a concentrated selection of paintings and drawings from 17 lenders, ranging from Darmstadt to Dallas.

Born in Utrecht, Netherlands, Arie van Selm learned to paint in Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Zurich before making the USA his adopted home. From New York, he was drawn to Dallas, Texas, where he maintained a large studio until the end. Since 2010, Berlin also played an important role, where he worked on the models for his bronze crows I-V at the Noack art foundry. Many works by the artist, who was closely associated with Darmstadt, have found their way into public and private collections in the United States and Europe.

Arie van Selm's art was first exhibited at the Kunsthalle Darmstadt in 2015 in Studio Ost, accompanying the installation of his Crow II on the then still fenced-in forecourt as part of the Blickachsen 10 (Axes of View 10) exhibition, which originated in Bad Homburg. As part of the redesign of the forecourt, the bronze sculpture, which had meanwhile been donated to the city of Darmstadt by a group of art-loving patrons, was relocated to Steubenplatz. It is now on display once again as a loan from the Mathildenhöhe Institute, marking the beginning of the tour.

Particular attention is paid to Arie van Selm's early work, which was introduced to the German art scene by the former Galerie Sander in Darmstadt from the 1980s onwards. Here, one can already see the artist using profiles of heads, masks, and animals in gestural-expressive compositions of surfaces, revealing his strong sense of color, form, and material. From the 2000s onwards, landscapes and florals, female head profiles, and repeatedly the crow become dominant in his work. A selection of works on paper - gouaches, watercolors, collages, drawings with chalk, oil chalk, acrylic, pen, and charcoal - rounds off the presentation.

The exhibition and catalog are supported by:

BS Kulturstiftung (BS Cultural Foundation)
Petra Ellinger
Family Office Enis Ersü
Bill Kramer
Hans-Joachim and Gisa Sander
Dr. Volker Hessemer
and other donors.