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Espace Sculpture

Holland Museums and sculpture Michael Molter

Number 32, Summer 1995

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/10193ac

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Publisher(s) Le Centre de diffusion 3D

ISSN 0821-9222 (print) 1923-2551 (digital)

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Cite this article Molter, M. (1995). Holland: Museums and sculpture. Espace Sculpture, (32), 33–34.

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Michael Molter

Lee U-Fan, Relatum. Holland's recent five-year Delta Plan for hundred museum institutions in Holland. Den Haag's Mauritshuis Museum's sky-lit 1979-80: (à droite): museum research and care of collections This centre, operated by the Rabobank ceiling viewing into rooms below the Evert Strobos. is on schedule. This plan, formerly the Caisse Populaire, issues one and a half court-yard entrance. The latter, interest­ Palissade. 1973. Photo : Cary Delta Plan for dykes and dams developed million cards to new customers yearly ingly, permits the public to view restora­ Markennk. Kroller to hold back the sea, is currently designed while promoting sales of museum passes, tions for the important commemorative Muller Sculpture to allow Dutch museums to direct their from student, to family, to frequent user. In year Vermeer exhibition. Park, Otterlo. own budgets, while redirecting any surplus a nation whose population totals fifteen Museums in the Netherlands, aware of Holland. funds back into facilities. million, this centre is expected to reach an their past and their present, are in a pro­ In July, 1994, with the independence of additional target audience of another two cess of renewal, assessing contemporary the first six national museums, including million in 1995. values against a "Golden Age"past. At the Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Maximum access is the goal, with same time, the memory of more lavish Museum and Stedelijk Museum, the Enk- admission fees redistributed throughout artist programmes from earlier, affluent huizen Zuiderzee Museum, the Maurit- the computerized user system to reflect socialist policies fades. Since 1987, Min­ shuis Royal Museum in Den Haag and the individual museum attendance. Sponsored istry of Culture reductions, privatization, Krôller-Mùller Museum, near Otterlo, a programmes at the Rijksmuseum include and the control of funding budgets outside policy of maximum independence was put restoration, renovation, family pro­ the ministry, have also resulted in the cur­ into effect. This policy is derived from the grammes, and a family lecture series. tailing of larger itinerant curatorial pro­ example of privatization achieved by The Since 1949, educational policy in jects. Netherlands Open Air Museum at Arn- Amsterdam schools has required actual With the model ofthe Mondriaan Foun­ heim, the first museum to gain indepen­ museum attendence six times during the dation of 1994, and the sucess of the ear­ dence. This institution, in a period of school calender for all eleven and twelve lier Van Gogh Foundation, both under the predicted closure due to government year olds. Currently this program targets direction of Mr. Frits Becht, today there is budget cuts in subsidies, is now seen to be the children of new immigrant families , in virtually a funding foundation behind showing the way of the future for state- an attempt to familiarze them with Dutch every discipline, with project management funded museums in The Netherlands. Pri­ cultural traditions. networks making decisions about artist vatization, due to its flexiblity, allows In terms of museums, there has never awards, funding abroad, acquisitions and budget allotments to remain intact, while been a time when more capital has been catalogues. The Foundation ofthe Visual at the same time the distribution of five made available for museums in the Neth­ Arts provides cohesive grants toward indi­ year budgets have become cost effective erlands. More museums are being built, vidual artist projects in Holland with a through a self-management process. refurbished, or expanded. The metaphor is continuity allowing for distinct, dynamic In the Netherlands today, sponsorship is that of the museum as the generator of cul­ Dutch museum and gallery programming seen as the way to realize extra projects, ture, as is witnessed by new museums that is remarkable for both intensive and only long-term corporate sponsors are under construction at the Groningen and research and coherent content. targeted by larger museum institutions. Maastricht Museums. These centres are Throughout the Netherlands, special exhi­ Holland has implemented a computerized attracting the public through new exhibi­ bitions and events in contemporary art, entry system, the Museumjaarkarte, which tion approaches, from the Stedelijk dance, poetry, music and theatre were held covers over half of the more than eight Amsterdam's " Couplet " rotations, to the throughout the 50th anniversary of Mon-

ESPACE 32 ÉTÉ / SUMMER 1995 * î been preserved for sented in the extreme through works by Sculpture by site-specific work Bruce Nauman. Recent acquisitions include Martha Pan, 1961. created for the col­ pieces by Matt Melechan, who incorporates Polyester. H. : 2,13 m. Photo : Cary lection. virtual reality in the building of metaphorical Markerink Krôller Tilberg is easily cities, demonstrating a kinship with the Uto­ Mùller Sculpture reached from Rot­ pian ideals of de Stijl concerning the fusion Park, Otterlo, terdam, known for of art and life. The collection aims to con­ Holland. its many contem­ tinue to acquire works by artists for whom porary artist-run this fusion is of primary importance. centres and gal­ For this centre, one focus since the leries, and as home 1960's has been the development of an to the Kunsthal Rot­ extraordinary collection of contemporary drian's death. In centres where Mondriaan terdam. Located as well in Rotterdam is sculpture, linking past and present, with a had lived and practiced, exhibitions and the Boymans-Van Beuningen, with its con­ sculpture garden that unifies the landscape, events were scheduled, for example the temporary and modern art sculpture gar­ the former grounds and the horizon. exhibition of work by the artist's father and dens and the recently opened Kunsthal en Located within the historic Hoge Veluwe uncle in the Piet Mondriaan birthplace in Architectuurmuseum (Art Gallery and National Park, on former hunting grounds, Amersfoort. This recently renovated historic Architecture Museum). The 1994 Witte de the natural beauty ofthe park and sculpture site and research centre also houses a con­ With exhibition of installations by William areas may be visited during a tour on bicy­ temporary gallery and an art publication Ooerbeek is being presented at the Win­ cles provided at the park entrance. In a house in association with the University of nipeg Art Gallery in 1995. complex of areas extending over 21 acres, Utrecht. works created in situ for the sculpture The Krôller Mùller Museum and garden, sculpture park, and sculpture forest New Collections and New Venues Sculpture Park include Dubuffet's Jardin d'émail, 1972-73, At the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Across The Netherlands, the 50th anniver­ Serra's Spin Out, 1972, Five Columns by exhibitions planned prior to the 1996 sary of the death of Mondriaan inspired Hamilton Finlay and Penone's Faggio di opening of an expanion included solo exhi­ exhibitions and festivals in dance, music, Otterlo. Through these works, some of bitions of new work, featuring works theatre and poetry. The Krôller Mùller humanity's innermost expressions engage acquired by the collection since 1989. Museum, Otterlo, displayed some 200 in a continuous dialogue with nature. These include works by Didier Vermeiren, works by the artist Bart van der Leek, in a New realities challenge the museum to James Coleman, Miroslaw Balka, Marcel retrospective displaying the versatility of maintain an autonomous existence, with Broodthaers, Rodney Graham, Hanne Dar- Mondriaan's symbiotic contemporary attendance by five hundred thousand visi­ boven, Marlene Dumas, and Rebecca Horn. through drawings, paintings, design, tors a year. Twenty per cent of its budget is Montreal benefitted from links with the ceramic and stained glass. Van der Leek, raised in admissions and sales, while eighty Netherlands through the exhibition of using primary colors, is known as an applied per cent of its income is assured. Exhibition work by Pieter Laurens Mol at the Centre artist in his development of Utiopian models and acquisition budgets allow for two major d'art Saidye Bronfman in August 1994. for the fusion of art and society. exhibitions yearly, with a summer program This show was organized by curator and The most remarkable grounds and collec­ centred around the permanent collection acting director Frank Lubbers. One Room , tion of international contemporary and and open storage section. In the 1920's the an installation piece by Christina Iglesias, modern sculpture in Holland is, undoubt­ foundation was created; the collection was and Mark Mander's Provisional Floorplan edly, the Krôller Mùller Museum and donated to the state in return for mainte­ Self Portrait as a Building were featured at national park at Otterlo. The collection orig­ nance ofthe buildings and grounds. This the Van Abbemuseum, while Manders' inated circa 1909, at which time Mme arrangement remains intact. Two new foun­ solo exhibition The Practice, and Krùller-Mùller, whose motto was "mind and dations were established in 1994 to admin­ Geneviève Cadieux's Summer of Photog­ matter are one", began to commission work ister the museum and grounds, allowing for raphy were shown at Antwerp's Museum by artists sharing her idealist, abstract vision. co-ownership ofthe collection by both the van Hedendaagse Kunst. Reciprocally, The actual buildings, some twenty years in foundation and state. Protected by the Delta Eindhoven, with its two artist-run centres, their conception, were created with some­ Plan, this provides each party with an option Appolohuis and de Fabriek, is a venue what limited means in the late 1930's based to sell in the future, if necessary, in order to familiar to Quebec artists. on the austere and modest design of Belgian assure the preservation ofthe collection. The De Pont Museum, near Eindhoven at architect Henry Van de Velde. The museum, Heart of Darkness, an international exhi­ Tilburg, ia a somewhat more isolated and whose design embodies the union of art and bition of recent sculpture, presented work newer venue, transformed from a former architecture in a open-air, "pilgrimage" set­ by artists who had conscientiously moved Textile Fabriek in 1988. It was opened in ting, was built to house the collection of from one culture to another, (France from 1992 through a private endowment initia­ industrialist Anton Krôller and his wife Ireland, Palestine to London, China to The tive by Jong De Pont to favour and stimu­ Hélène Mùller. While the collection origi­ Netherlands, etc.). The exhibition ran from late contemporary art. Gallery director nated with works of Van Gogh it increas­ December 1994 to April 1995 and Driesen exhibits work by a selected group ingly integrated early Cubism and the work included both interior and exterior installa­ of artists from its growing international col­ of de Stijl. Mondriaan was also central, tions incorporating an event of Chinese lection, presenting two or three major solo occupying a position as a symbol ofthe bal­ fireworks. A spring 1995 exhibition of exhibitions and an average of four smaller ance between emotion and reason. The col­ work by Theo van Doesburg, from the col­ group exhibitions per year. An exhibition lection, donated to the state in 1920, also lection, is to be followed by Jean Marc held between October 22, 1994 and Feb­ includes important work by Van der Leek, as Bustamente from April to November 1995. ruary 12, 1995 featured recent work by well as several exquisite and rare works by In July, 1995, the complete museum col­ Vancouver artist Jeff Wall. While the De Seurat. Subsequent acquisitions favoured lection will be presented, organized by Pont offers large open space, some of the works by artists conscious of the function of Charley Toorop and the Loes van der earlier "wool storage room" divisions have art in society. Utopian models were repre­ Horst project. I

ESPACE 32 ETE / SUMMER 1995