‘Aline Thomassen’s work is full of brutal tenderness’ Hafid Bouazza

Aline Thomassen wins 2024 Ouburg Award

This year’s Ouborg Award, The Hague’s most important award for visual arts, has been awarded to painter Aline Thomassen. She will receive €25,000 to develop her work and a solo exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. 

Born in 1964, Thomassen is a Dutch artist who lives and works in the Netherlands and Morocco. Her work, predominantly in watercolour, explores the self-expression of Moroccan women, focusing on female identity and the body. 

Thomassen was selected by a jury made up of Alexandra Landré (chair, artistic director of Stroom Den Haag), Jeroen Eisinga (winner of the 2019 Ouborg Award), Hicham Khalidi (director of the Jan van Eyck Academy and curator of the Dutch pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale) and Laura Stamps (curator at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag).  

‘The anthropological view of the world is particularly interesting in her work,’ the jury said in a statement. ‘Thomassen is not afraid of the world around her and seeks encounters with the unknown – the other – outside her own bubble.’

The Ouborg Award
The Ouborg Award is The Hague’s city award for visual arts, named after the Hague-based artist Pieter Ouborg (1893-1956). Through the Ouborg Award, The Hague expresses its appreciation of the high level and broad significance of the nominees and the extent to which they contribute to the artistic climate in the city and to its international allure. From this year, the award will be presented every four years. Launched in 1990, previous laureates have included Philip Akkerman, Christie van der Haak, Marcel van Eeden and Lotti van der Gaag

Drawing Centre Diepenheim, Je suis toi- tu es moi

Rembrandt House Museum, RAW

Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, Cherchez La Femme

Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, Cherchez La Femme

Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, Cherchez La Femme/ project Quarantaine

Mondriaan Fund Mondriaan Fonds
ALINE THOMASSEN