Leiden, Tuesday, November 8, 17:29
‘Thoughts?’

A Leiden PhD candidate posts a photo on Twitter of a painting that is on display in one of the halls of the Academy Building and wonders out loud whether there ought not be a sign next to it with an ‘ironic or somewhat self-critical’ note.

What that sign could have said is that the contentious artwork was created by Rein Dool (89). The painting features the 1974 Executive Board, including Rector Magnificus Dolf Cohen. The way in which the six elderly men are depicted is not very flattering and they are surrounded by cigar smoke.

The painting was gifted to the university in 1977 by the municipality of Leiden. During that ceremony, the artist told Leidsch Dagblad that he had been clear beforehand about the ironic way in which he would depict the powerful men: ‘I said I’d give them ugly mugs, but that was fine.’

Leiden, Wednesday, November 9, 20:06
Replies pop up under the PhD candidate’s tweet, some from Leiden administrators. ‘Personally, I think it can go and I expect it to go soon :)’, writes Dean of the Law School Joanne van der Leun.
 
‘I have spent most of my career in Academia in rooms with men and paintings of men. Moreover I hate the smoke, even if it is only painted.’

Leiden, Thursday, November 10, 17:03
Time to take action! During a meeting in the Academy Building, several staff members, including Vice Dean Koem Caminada of FGGA, stand up and take the painting off the hook. Photos on Twitter show Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl holding the artwork as well.

After the cigar-smoking men are placed on the floor, triumphant reactions start to flood in. ‘Immediate action was taken today @UniLeiden :) !!’, tweets Van der Leun. Caminada posts a picture of the painting on the floor facing the wall, accompanied by the word ‘Done!’

‘It’s true that the rector was there’, university spokesperson Caroline van Overbeeke would later acknowledge. ‘She participated in the meeting.’ However, it was other staff members who pulled this ‘spontaneous, tongue-in-cheek stunt’. ‘She may have touched the piece but she was not one of the people who took it off the wall.’

Dordrecht, Monday, November 14, 10:50
Rein Dool’s wife answers the phone. After a bit of sleuthing, she finds the painter somewhere in their home in Dordrecht. The artist is furious about the removal of his painting. ‘It’s terrible.’ He thinks it is ‘ridiculous, ludicrous and short-sighted that a few idiots are not happy about the painting showing men smoking. The university is truly disgracing itself.’

If this artwork is no longer allowed, ‘they might as well throw out all of the older paintings’, he continues. ‘You can always find something on them that is now considered out of bounds. I think it should be put back up. If that doesn’t happen, they should simply give it back to me.’

When he painted the Board, all of the members were men, he says. ‘That has changed, and I think that’s a very good thing. The painting is an image of the time. What I’m trying to do is hold up a mirror to the administrators.’

There are also advantages to all the commotion: he is now making his breakthrough with the general public at the ripe old age of 89. ‘There has never been so much attention for a piece of mine.’ De Telegraaf and NOS are writing about him. ‘One of the best pieces’, reads NRC’s headline in reference to the painting. That night, a beaming Rein Dool appears on Nieuwsuur and as a guest on Op1.

Amsterdam, Monday, November 4, 11:10
‘What could you be calling about, I wonder?’

Job Cohen, former junior minister, mayor of Amsterdam, leader of the PvdA and son of former rector Dolf Cohen – one of the men depicted on the painting – answers the phone with a rhetorical question. ‘You probably want a comment on the removed painting. I’ll consult with my brother Floris.’

Half an hour later, he calls back: ‘You can expect a mail from me shortly.’

The brothers send a letter to the Executive Board and Mare. In it, ‘the sons of one of your predecessors’ write in an upbeat tone that they are ‘extremely curious about the reasons for this removal’. According to them, not only does the artwork ‘offer a fine insight into the spirit of the times, but it has captured in an equally fine manner the spirit with which the then Rector held office’.

They offer to teach the Executive Board more about the artwork. ‘That is why we thought it would be a good idea to propose that the two of us – who are now considerably more elderly than the “old men” depicted in the painting – shine a light on that painting and its context in the form of a brief lecture of say 15 minutes – or slightly longer, if you prefer.’

The Hague, Monday, November 14, 14:13
The commotion has reached the Lower House. ‘This is a tragic new episode in the wretched woke saga’, says PVV MP Martin Bosma during a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Education, Culture and Science. ‘The university, that’s always boasting so much about Cleveringa, appears to be run by frightened little weasels who are all too quick to pander to the totalitarian whims of leftist snowflakes. ‘What does the present D66 junior minister have to say about this?’

‘I don’t concern myself with art in university buildings’, responds Gunay Uslu, junior minister for Culture and Media. ‘This is a matter for Leiden itself.’

However, after Bosma’s insistence, she agrees to contact Leiden and ‘bring this debate to the attention of the university. I won’t comment on what should happen with the painting’.
 
The VVD raises parliamentary questions. MP Hatte van der Woude asks Minister of Education Dijkgraaf, among others, whether he agrees that ‘removing a painting without any discussion (...) purely because of the gender and skin colour of the people depicted, is a form of both sexism and racism’.
 
Leiden, Tuesday, November 15, 13:55
Apparently, the painting is stirring up a little too much noise. The Executive Board decides to make a strategic retreat.
 
‘We see the action as the start of a discussion on the matter but are pressing pause for now’, president of the Executive Board Annetje Ottow announced via the university website. ‘We will hang the work back on the wall for the time being.’
 
‘It is an impressive artwork and we are proud of the past administrators who are depicted in the painting’, says the president. However: ‘Not everyone feels represented by this iconic work’, she continues. ‘The spontaneous action makes us think. Inclusion is one of our most important tasks.’
 
That is why a ‘diverse committee will figure out the best approach to ensure the work is done the justice it deserves’.
 
Leiden, Tuesday, November 15, 16:28
‘It’s still on the floor, facing the wall’, tweets university historian Pieter Slaman. Indeed, the painting has not been put back up yet. Instead, two stanchions connected by rope were placed in front of it.
 
That is temporary, spokesperson Van Overbeeke explains. ‘If you pass by the Academy Building on Wednesday, you’ll see that the painting is back on the wall.’
 
Leiden, Wednesday, November 16, 09:02
A phone call from the university spokesperson: ‘It’s back up!’