The exhibition The Love of Art Comes First examines the gallery Art & Project and its history. Art & Project was one of the pioneering galleries of contemporary art in the Netherlands and far beyond. Its founders Geert van Beijeren (1933-2005) and Adriaan van Ravesteijn (1938-2015) presented a program featuring national and international artists, which was initially closely associated with the rise of conceptual art.

As an extension of their gallery activities, Geert van Beijeren and Adriaan van Ravesteijn assembled an impressive private collection, which reflects the program of Art & Project. Over three hundred works, the largest part of this collection, were donated to the Kröller-Müller Museum in 2013. The majority of the more than one hundred works in the exhibition, by artists including Jan Dibbets, Ger van Elk, Gilbert & George, Willy Ørskov, Barry Flanagan, Richard Long and Nicholas Pope, were part of this donation.

The exhibition was accompanied by a large catalogue: The publication Art & Project. A History examines the exhibitions, the bulletins, the gallery's network and its influence in the (inter)national art world from various perspectives. The book is the result of extensive research and contains a great deal of previously unpublished (visual) material.

Texts by: Jip Hinten, Catrien Schreuder, Regine Ehleiter, Ton Geerts, Kees Keijer e.a.