Charles Esche (2004-2024)

Collective perspective

In August 2004, Charles Esche (1962), born in England, took up his position as director of the Van Abbemuseum. He combined this role with prestigious assignments abroad, curating exhibitions and biennials in countries such as Turkey, Slovenia, Brazil, and South Korea.

Where previous artistic policy viewed the museum as a “neutral” space in which modern art was seen as an individual aesthetic expression, Esche instead brought society into the museum. He emphasised that art is not about objects, but about ideas and relationships. This led to a shift from the individual perspective to that of the collective. The importance of the collective was particularly evident in the last two exhibitions curated by Esche: Art is a verb (2024) and Two Sides of the Same Coin (2025).

Ideological fault lines: pseudomarxism, decolonisation, and demodernisation

Two stages can be identified in the artistic development of the museum program during Esche’s twenty-year directorship. The first was labeled “pseudomarxist” by critics. Esche himself preferred to describe this period as a creative reflection on the legacy of socialism after its collapse in 1989. In this phase, the ideas of cultural philosopher Walter Benjamin influenced the artistic direction: modern art is not narrated through the individual gaze of a creative genius, but through the relationships between artworks and the social and material contexts in which they are produced. The exhibition that best represented this position was Forms of Resistance (2007–08). This show reflected on social engagement in the arts during four historical moments in history. Benjamin’s thinking also resonated in the invitations extended to Dan Perjovschi, Yael Bartana, and Wilhelm Sasnal in 2006, all of whom used their work to offer insight into political uncertainty and its potential for often violent change.

Esche’s affinity with Marxism particularly marked the first ten years of his directorship, but never fully disappeared from view afterward. In the second half of his time at the Van Abbemuseum, however, decolonial thought became the dominant force. This decolonial shift was driven by a growing awareness of exclusion within the museum program and blind spots in the collection and acquisition policies. The new course had major influence on the museum’s curatorial practice. This vision can be seen in solo exhibitions by artists such as Sheela Gowda (2013), Rasheed Araeen (2017), and the duo exhibition of Gülsün Karamustafa and León Ferrari (2021–22). Long-term exhibitions and projects such as Hidden Connections (ongoing since 2016), the multi-sensory collection presentation Delinking and Relinking (2021–2026), and Soils (2024) were also strongly shaped by decolonial thinking.

A conceptual response to this decolonial ideology—one that inspired many museum projects—was the notion of demodernisation. For Esche, thinking in demodern terms within a museum holding a North Atlantic, largely white, Western, and male collection was an active way to engage with decoloniality. But to truly demodernize the collection and program, Esche argued, it was first necessary to investigate how the Van Abbemuseum and modern art were connected to colonial exploitation. This inquiry shed light on the Sumatran tobacco industry of the museum’s founder, Henri van Abbe, who established the art museum in 1936 using his colonial profits. In Esche’s view, demodernization needed to go beyond giving a voice to those who continue to be subjected to colonial systems of power today. He therefore advocated for a spectrum of pluriversal—as opposed to universal—ideas. For Europe, he envisioned a role in which the continent no longer positioned itself as the standard, but instead became part of “a world in which many worlds fit.”

A museum for everyone

Alongside shaping the museum program, Marxist thought also motivated Esche in his efforts to attract a broader, younger, and more diverse audience than the traditional, highly educated elite. To achieve this, the Indian artist Praneet Soi collaborated with Eindhoven-based technical researchers; the Soils exhibition brought Brabant farmers into the museum; and a hip-hop exhibition with an accompanying Art Night drew young, urban communities to the Van Abbemuseum—communities who had never visited before. In this way, new groups became acquainted with the museum over the course of twenty years: a place where people can meet one another.

Suggestions for further reading

• Dwarsverbanden, Multi-zintuiglijke collectiepresentatie, Charles Esche, et al. (Eindhoven, Van Abbemuseum, 2024).
• Soils, Charles Esche, et al. (Eindhoven, Van Abbemuseum, 2024).
• The Museum is Multiple, Van Abbemuseum 2004-24, Charles Esche en Chương-Đài Võ (Eindhoven, Van Abbemuseum, 2024).