J. H. Moesman’s ‘Arrival’ is one of the works from the Centraal Museum collection, in dialogue with the artists from the Modern Love festival exhibition.

Thanks to the umbrella, the lower half of a male body makes a safe landing on a rock at the edge of a vast lake, with rain clouds looming above. Joop Moesman based the figure in this painting on a sketch made during a life drawing evening. His decision to use the lower body as an independent motif was seen as a provocation because of the central position of the genitals. The painting by the Surrealist artist was even removed from an exhibition. Moesman’s defence was that the penis was simply there: he couldn’t just leave it out. And it isn’t even erect!

Marja Bosma − conservator moderne kunst

Collection Centraal Museum, Utrecht/ purchase with the support of the Mondriaan Fund, the Rembrandt Association and the VSB Fund 2000

© Centraal Museum Utrecht / Ernst Moritz