Interview with Philip Akkerman

For the exhibition Out of Office (Still Here) Quiller MacQuarrie conducted interviews with various artists. This interview is with Philip Akkerman, The Hague's City Artist for 2026. Part of his practice involves creating drawings of the city's changing districts: he focuses on 21th century architecture.

Quiller:

How do you see your work connects to the themes of the exhibition: access to free time and leisure in relation to the summer vacation?

Philip:

In my life, there is no vacation. I want to paint and paint.

Quiller:

Does your artistic practice feel more like leisure/play or work/labor?

Philip:

For me, painting is a mix of working and playing, both at the same time.

Quiller:

What is your favorite memory from a summer period?

Philip:

When I was a little boy, lying on a cloudless warm day on my back in the grass, looking into the universe.

Quiller:

What do you like to do with your free time?

Philip:

Painting

Quiller:

In your painting of Grote Markt some of the buildings look a bit different, with patterns flowing over buildings and changing colors for the sky. How do you see the city changing over the summer holiday?

Philip:

The Hague is a boring gray city. I want to paint with bright colors today!!

Quiller:

In your paintings of the city some of the colors of the buildings and the streets change. For example a pink building in grote markt and a purple sky in another piece. Do these colors change seasonally for you or is this the way you view the hague statically, aside from weather and populous?

Philip:

I am not a realist. My work does not come from the outside but from the inside. (For my cityscapes I work with a compromise because I want the people to be able to recognize the place I paint. That is why the drawing is realistic and the color is free.)

Quiller:

In inviting residents of the Hague to make their own city scapes, what do you hope to see in their artworks?

Philip:

I enjoy sharing my work with people.

Quiller:

Why do you find it important to include residents of the Hague in your workshops?

Philip:

“Jeder ist ein Künstler” I do not like the work of Joseph Beuys, but here he is right. A scientific statement can be true or false. But EVERY work of art, whoever created it, is 100% the truth!