...we're spilling our cash and talking a whole lot of trash. Little Richard's cry (or was it James Brown's?) could be heard in a swift rap by Milco whenever excitement arose during some hour of spirited bullshitting, or as a mild rebuke to anyone talking complete nonsense. Shake and Pop, You're the man!, Kunst ist die höchste Form von Hoffnung and so on: Milco had an entire repertoire of exclamations and quotes, mostly from his favorite writers, visual artists, pop entertainers, but also from other people since a great deal of singular stuff by those he ran into on a daily basis ended up in his collection. These sayings, legendary in his view, were lavishly strewn about by him. His fabulous memory and feeling for words made that possible, and made it an absolute treat. Milco was insatiable where language and art, both high and low, were concerned. This made him the man and the gallerist we knew: irresistibly inspiring and passionate.
Milco Onrust died in June of last year, following a long illness. The exhibition, which commemorates Milco with works produced by artists and former artists of the gallery, is an initiative of Han Schuil and Toon Verhoef and has been realized in close collaboration with Boudi Eskens.
