Eva Besnyö - The Liberated Camera

One of the largest-ever retrospective of the photographer who put a face to the 20th century 

5 September 2026 – 31 January 2027
 

Photographer Eva Besnyö (1910 – 2003) not only bore witness to but served as a driving force behind the emancipation of photography. Together with her contemporaries, she experimented freely with a new visual language, one that moved away from painting and towards reality, with a real sense of dynamism and immediacy.

This autumn, Fotomuseum Den Haag will present one of the largest-ever retrospectives of Eva Besnyö’s work. It has been assembled from photographs found in the museum’s own collection, the largest group of her works in the world. Set against the backdrop of a radically-changing Europe, the exhibition follows the course of Besnyö’s life: from her first experiences with the camera in Budapest and her formative years in the gritty Berlin of the 1930s, to her life and career in Bergen and later Amsterdam, where she was part of a progressive creative circle. Also addressed are the Second World War, which left deep marks, and the artist’s involvement with the ‘Dolle Minas’, a feminist movement of the 1970s. Through vintage prints, archival material, magazines, letters and personal documents, the exhibition paints a rich picture of both Besnyö’s oeuvre and the 20th century, in which political events and the struggle for women’s emancipation are closely intertwined with her life and work. 

‘Besnyö had not only an exceptional talent for photography, but strong entrepreneurial instincts as well. From her position as a migrant, she managed time and again to earn a place for herself in leading artistic circles; to build her own career through photo commissions; and to carry out initiatives that advanced photography as an artform, such as the groundbreaking Foto ’37 exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.' - Margriet Schavemaker, General Director of Kunstmuseum Den Haag and Fotomuseum Den Haag
 

New Photography 

Stylistically, a large portion of Eva Besnyö’s work is considered ‘New Photography’, a movement which turned to the camera as a means of revealing the world in a new, object and experimental way. Unexpected camera angles, strong diagonal lines and clean compositions were the movement’s trademarks. With a keen eye, Besnyö captured people, cities, architecture and societal changes. Her photographs show the world as it was: modern, dynamic and constantly in flux.

In the footsteps of a century 

The exhibition traces the course of Besnyö’s life, starting with her youth in Budapest and her move to Berlin. Together with her partner at the time, John Fernhout, she abandoned Berlin in favour of Bergen in 1932. There, she went on to develop a close long-term friendship with Fernhout’s mother, Charley Toorop. Through her in-laws, she found her way into the vanguard of the Dutch art world. World War II caused a rupture in her life. Besnyö, who was Jewish, was forced to temporarily give up her work and go into hiding. In the Netherlands after the war, she turned her camera on a society in transition – from the reconstruction period to female emancipation, with her pictures of the Dolle Minas having since attained iconic status. Along with Besnyö’s photographs and personal documents, the exhibition also includes a self-portrait by Charley Toorop and chairs by Gerrit Rietveld. These additions underscore the extent to which Besnyö was a member of Dutch artistic society in the 1930s.

Largest Besnyö collection 

In 2023, Fotomuseum Den Haag / Kunstmuseum Den Haag acquired a major collection of 341 prints by photographer Eva Besnyö. Every one of these photographs was printed in a darkroom, either by Besnyö herself or under her supervision. The collection includes the well-known portrait of a boy with a bass; portraits of other artists whom she had befriended (such as Charley Toorop and Violette Cornelius); and the cityscape taken on the Starnberger Straße in Berlin, which displays the interplay of diagonal lines so typical of her work.

These works were previously owned by Besnyö’s daughter, Iara Brusse. Acquisition of the collection was made possible through a combination of purchases and donations, and with the support of the Erik Bos Fund.  

Publication 

The exhibition will be accompanied by a publication by the same title: ‘Eva Besnyö: The Liberated Camera’. It includes texts contributed by Maurits de Bruijn, Nienke Coers, Margriet Schavemaker, Iris Sikking, Lou Stoppard and Willemijn van der Zwaan.  The book of photographs was designed by Hans Gremmen and is being published by Hannibal Books. 

Biography 

Eva Besnyö (1910 - Laren, 2003) was born in Budapest. As a teenager, she received a camera from her farther – a fateful moment that would determine the course of her life. She took lessons from József Pécsi, a well-known photographer, in Budapest. He was among those who encouraged her to move to Berlin in 1930 to continue her photographic career. The rise of fascism drove her to relocate to the Netherlands in 1932, where she quickly gained renown as a professional photographer. Besnyö played a crucial role in the evolution of Dutch photography in the 20th century. She was one of the best-known figures within the New Photography movement in the Netherlands, a group characterised by a modern, experimental approach and a focus on everyday subjects.

Alongside her artistic work, Besnyö was active in social movements as well. In the 1970s, she used her photography as a means of drawing attention to women’s rights. Her photographic oeuvre encompasses a wide range of subjects, varying from portraits and street photography to landscapes and abstract compositions. Eva Besnyö died in Laren on 12 December 2003.

This exhibition was made possible in part with the support of the Municipality of The Hague, VriendenLoterij, the Erik Bos Fund and the Society of Friends of Kunstmuseum Den Haag (Vereniging Vrienden van Kunstmuseum Den Haag) and V-fonds. 
The research which preceded the exhibition and publication was enabled by support from the Rembrandt Society (thanks in part to its fund for Research into Modern and Contemporary Art).