Watch Madelon Vriesendorp's Soane Medal Lecture
Dutch artist Madelon Vriesendorp, the 2025 recipient of the Soane Medal from the Sir John Soane's Museum in London, received her medal and gave a talk Royal Academy of Arts in November. In the lecture, the self-proclaimed “obsessive artist” discusses her upbringing, education, and long career—all in a way that is honest yet also humorous.
When Vriesendorp was named the latest recipient of the Soane Medal in October, we posted a video made by the Sir John Soane's Museum that ventured inside the artist's cluttered yet clearly considered studio. Photos of her studio make up a lot of the lecture she gave at the RA a month later, on November 18, and which the museum recently posted to their YouTube channel; they are preceded by photos of her childhood and just a few of the many illustrations she has made over her long career. Her most famous illustration is the post-coital portrait of the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building in bed together, an image that would be used the cover of the first edition of Rem Koolhaas's Delirious New York. Vriesendorp's background story on that image and others in the series is just one reason the lecture is so rewarding. Her talk starts at around the 15-minute mark, following remarks from Will Gompertz, director of the Sir John Soane's Museum, and Vicky Richardson, a member of the panel that chose Vriesendorp for the Soane Medal 2025.