The very first episode of Constant 1-on-1 The podcast is online now on Spotify or whereever you listen to podcasts! This four-episode series dives into Constant’s practice as an artist, his life and the context in which he operated and built his oeuvre. Ans Boersma and Thijs van Elten dig into the archive and question friends, art historians and contemporary artists about the relevance of a legacy like Constant’s in today’s world.

Constant was an artist who was strongly driven by social engagement and experiment, resulting in a body of work that is wildly varying in its outward appearance. The diversity in his body of work makes him less recognisable to a larger public than some of his contemporaries, like Karel Appel and Piet Mondriaan. Curators and critics recognise Constant as a great artist, but with the public he remains somewhat unknown. Exceedingly headstrong: Constant did not follow trends but created his own path. A visionary.

This podcast allows you to get to know him, or know him better. Because even more than 100 years after his birth, he still has a message for you.

Interviewees

This first episode serves as an introduction to Constant. It covers WWII, the Cobra group, Constant’s theories and ideas, his personality and the artistic turning point into New Babylon, as we speak to the following four people who knew him well, personally or through his work – or both.

Laura Stamps: curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Kunstmuseum The Hague
Willemijn Stokvis: art historian and Cobra expert
Ronald Tolman: artist and friend of Constant
Ludo van Halem: curator of 20th Century Art at Rijksmuseum