Heydenreich is fascinated by maps and panoramic landscapes, particularly when they feature mountains. She translates far-off vistas into drawings and objects, kaleidoscopic installations and collages that incorporate folding techniques. By creasing, drawing and recombining objects and imagery, the artist creates imaginary panoramas. She plays with proportions and optical illusions, opening perspectives into and across new landscapes. Her media of choice include pencil, historical photos and maps, graphic images, textiles, needle and thread.

Like Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915), Heydenreich toys with how we experience perspective and, by doing so, provokes a sense of wonder despite the familiarity of the imagery itself. Through her three-dimensional artworks, she creates the illusion of a new and wondrous world. Every aspect of her art deals with space and proportion. As viewers, we are subtly drawn into her universe. Our eyes see familiar and alien landscapes, while at the same time, our minds register an insurmountable distance. On occasion, she refers literally to the phenomenon of 19th-century panoramas. Like Mesdag, Heydenreich also developed a cylindrical drawing device for the purpose of making her sketches.

Museum director Minke Schat: “Crafted with a mathematical precision, Heydenreich’s work is simultaneously enchanting and fascinating. As a viewer, your gaze is captured by a world in which you can lose yourself, a world that is never quite what it seems. The patterns and optical illusions trick your brain, as Mesdag’s work also does in its own way. This commonality ties past and present together in one museum, where two artists with parallel creative aims have worked.”

The exhibition includes a special gallery – a Wunderkammer inspired by Heydenreich’s atelier – filled with sources of inspiration, folding templates, kaleidoscopic objects and a perspective box. The artist has designed folding exercises with maps especially for visitors to this exhibition. Visitors can try their hand at this creative task in the Open Atelier set up in the gallery.

To accompany the exhibition, a short documentary and a publication have been created to introduce the public to the artist herself. Speaking from her atelier in Düsseldorf, Heydenreich talks about the sources of her inspiration and her creative process. The publication will be available in the Museum Shop (both on-site and online).

Ulrike Heydenreich lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. She studied at the renowned Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, as well as at the School of Visual Arts, New York and other institutions. Her work has previously been exhibited in the United States, Germany, Spain, Japan, Belgium and Austria. This is the first time a museum has presented a retrospective of her work.

The exhibition Ulrike Heydenreich: Longing for the distance is on from 01/04/2023 through 17/09/2023.

Museum Panorama Mesdag is an icon in The Hague – and the Panorama of Scheveningen is its crown jewel. The museum displays works by artists (and married couple) Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Sientje Mesdag-van Houten, along with temporary exhibitions that forge connections between past and present. Museum Panorama Mesdag is endlessly fascinating for everyone.

Caroline Rijks: PR, marketing & communication for Museum Panorama Mesdag. crijks@panorama-mesdag.nl / +31 (0)64 125 38 16.

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A series of interviews with Ulrike Heydenreich will be published to accompany the exhibition. In these conversations, conservator Adrienne Quarles van Ufford speaks to the artist about her inspiration, techniques and work.