Van Gogh Museum Journal 2001 bron Van Gogh Museum Journal 2001. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam 2001 Zie voor verantwoording: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_van012200101_01/colofon.php © 2012 dbnl / Rijksmuseum Vincent Van Gogh 7 Director's foreword The contents of this year's Van Gogh Museum Journal are in large measure related to the exhibition Van Gogh and Gauguin. At the time of writing, this spectacular exhibition had just opened at the Art Institute of Chicago and it moves to our museum in February 2002. The show consists of some 120 works by Van Gogh and Gauguin, all of which have been selected to recreate their complex artistic relationship. It begins with their initial awareness of each other's art in the mid-1880s before moving on to their brief period of frenetic collaboration in Arles, following their interaction in sequences of works, some familiar some not. An extended postscript to the show takes the story through to the end of their respective careers. One might think that there is little left to tell about the relationship between Van Gogh and Gauguin, a theme which has attracted generations of historians, writers and filmmakers. Surprisingly, the exhibition in Chicago and Amsterdam is the first time this story has been told using the pictures themselves. The result is in no way a dry art-historical exercise but retains a sense of excitement in its unfolding narrative. The accompanying exhibition catalogue draws a substantial body of information together and provides a platform for further research on both artists. Several of the articles in this Journal either develop aspects of the catalogue research or approach similar issues from different perspectives. Alongside material on Van Gogh and Gauguin, however, there are also articles on other aspects of the permanent collection and on our recent acquisitions. Of particular note this year is the purchase of two works by Monet, both of Dutch subjects. There is also a complete list of the recently acquired Nabis print collection, announced in the Journal of 2000. I am grateful to all the authors both from within and from outside our museum for their contributions. Particular thanks are also due to our managing editor, Rachel Esner, who has guided this volume to completion with her customary skill and patience. I should also like to thank Head of Research Chris Stolwijk, Leo Jansen of the Van Gogh Letters Project and Head of Collections Sjraar van Heugten for their work on the editorial board. In an article published in Le Monde on 18 August 2001 the writer John Berger asked whether it was still possible to add anything to all the words that have already been written on Van Gogh. His answer was a resounding ‘no.’ We beg to differ. The exhibition Van Gogh and Gauguin and the related publications - including this issue of the Van Gogh Museum Journal - demonstrate that Van Gogh's art can indeed stimulate new and worthwhile research. And, while the body of literature continues to grow, there are enough reminders that we still have much to learn about the painter and his art. John Leighton Director Van Gogh Museum Journal 2001 8 fig. 1 Claude Monet, Mills at Westzijderveld near Zaandam, 1871, Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum Van Gogh Museum Journal 2001 9 Review August 2000 - July 2001 Introduction The year 2000 brought a new record in the number of visits to the Van Gogh Museum. A total of 1,312.204 visitors made their way through our doors last year, an increase of almost 30 percent from the previous record year in 1997 (the Museum was closed for renovation during part of 1998 and 1999). While elsewhere in the Netherlands visitor numbers to museums have either remained stable or in some cases even decreased, the Van Gogh Museum has witnessed a pattern of steady growth. The museum has of course benefited from the general trends in tourism, and Amsterdam has maintained its popularity with overseas visitors. The seemingly unremitting publicity surrounding various aspects of Van Gogh's life and art has also helped attract attention to our activities. But, setting the cloak of modesty to one side for a moment, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the increasing popularity of the museum results in large measure from the appeal of our programmes and our success in bringing them to a wider audience. With the new wing, opened in 1999, we have been able to further develop our exhibition programme. Our surveys show that an increasing number of visitors are not restricting their visits to the permanent collection but are also coming for the temporary shows. Our educational service has also expanded, with a resulting increase in schools visits, while new acquisitions have also helped to generate interest, especially among the local public. Needless to say, the increasing number of visitors has brought with it challenging logistical problems and added to the pressure of work for our staff. In recent years our organisation has become steadily more professional in its approach to running a modern, public-friendly facility. In February 2001 the management team was further strengthened with the appointment of Ruth Kervezee as Director of Internal Affairs. Previously one of the directors of the Dutch section of Médecins sans Frontières, Ms Kervezee brings her considerable administrative experience in the not-for-profit sector to the Van Gogh Museum. Our former Deputy Director, Ton Boxma, has been appointed Director of Van Gogh Museum Enterprises Ltd., a new company established in 2000 to develop the museum's commercial activities. The Van Gogh Museum, like so many other museums across the world, has had to respond to the shifting economic, social and political environment. However, as the contents of this issue of the Van Gogh Museum Journal demonstrate, our focus remains firmly on the time-honoured activities of a museum: caring for and developing the collection; pursuing scholarship of the highest standards; and using the collection to inform and inspire a broad public both here in the Netherlands and abroad. The continuing popularity of the museum suggests that our public is happy to endorse this approach. The collection In recent years our acquisitions policy has become more focused on filling specific gaps in the museum's presentation of 19th- and early 20th-century art. Whereas for many years the emphasis was on marking out new areas of collecting - such as Van Gogh Museum Journal 2001 symbolism or academic art - our aim now is to build upon what has already been achieved and, wherever possible, to marshal our resources towards acquiring major works. In contrast to the high quality of the Van Gogh collection, our representation of 19th-century art remains uneven. Our biggest challenge is now to redress this balance. One of the major failings of our displays has always been its lack of a satisfactory overview of impressionism. This year, however, we were fortunate to be able to acquire our first significant impressionist paintings. For some time we had been looking for a good example of Monet's work from the 1870s, preferably depicting a Dutch subject. When by coincidence two such pictures became available we decided to make an effort to acquire both. One is an important canvas from the artist's first trip to Holland in 1871, when he stayed at Zaandam; the other is a view of Amsterdam painted a few years later. Both reproduce subjects Van Gogh Museum Journal 2001 10 fig. 2 Secretary for culture, Rick van der Ploeg and the mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, at the unveiling of the newly acquired Monet paintings many local residents will recognise, and they well illustrate Monet's fascination with Holland's particular light and atmosphere (see also pp. 140-43). Together the two paintings make a compelling pair, showing the development of Monet's style and approach in the crucial early years of impressionism. The purchase of two pictures by Monet in one fell swoop was only possible thanks to important developments in the funding of museum purchases in the Netherlands. Until recently, the Van Gogh Museum had only relatively modest sums at its disposal when adding new works to the collection. In 1998, however, the Van Gogh Museum - along with the Rijksmuseum, the Mauritshuis and the Kröller-Müller Museum - became a beneficiary of the Dutch Sponsor Lottery (now renamed the Sponsor Bingo Lottery). Funds provided by the lottery had already contributed to the purchase of a major work by Kees van Dongen, The blue dress (see Van Gogh Museum Journal 1999). Several other trusted supporters of the museum world helped in making these acquisitions possible, including the Vereniging Rembrandt (supported by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and a donation from VNU), the Mondriaan Stichting and the VSB-Fonds. The state also did its part with a donation from the National Acquisitions Fund. But it was a relative newcomer that played the key role in raising the capital for the purchases, the Nationaal Fonds Kunstbezit. A total of seven major Dutch companies donated monies for the works through this new national fund: ABN AMRO, ING, Fortis, Shell, Unilever, Heineken and Philips Electronics. This is the first time in recent history that heavyweights from the Dutch business world have joined together to support a purchase for a museum's permanent collection. It is to be hoped that this initiative will be the start of a new phase in the enrichment of museum collections across the country. Alongside our acquisitions we rely heavily on loans from museums and private collections to bolster our displays. At present we have works on loan from the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk and Amsterdams Historisch Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the National Gallery in London.