Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Fact Sheet
Mission
The Stedelijk Museum is an international
institution in Amsterdam dedicated to modern
and contemporary art and design. The
Museum aims to provide a home for art, artists
and a broad range of publics, where artistic
production is actively fostered, presented,
protected, reconsidered and renewed.
Leadership
Ann Goldstein, Director
Patrick van Mil, Business Director
Location
The Stedelijk Museum is located in
Amsterdam’s South district on the
Museumplein (Museum Plaza), near the
intersection of Paulus Potterstraat and
Van Baerlestraat. Close neighbors are the
Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and
the Concertgebouw.
History
The Stedelijk Museum was founded in 1874
by a group of private citizens in Amsterdam,
led by C.P. van Eeghen, who donated funds
and their art collections to establish a museum
in the capital of the Netherlands that would be
devoted to modern art. The collection, housed
at first at the Rijksmuseum, was moved in 1895
into the Museum’s own building, designed by
A.W. Weissman. For its first decades, the
Stedelijk maintained a diverse collection,
which included works of contemporary Dutch
and French masters but also period rooms and
even the banners of citizens’ militias.
Beginning around 1920, however, the
collection was culled and the focus
concentrated more rigorously on modern and
contemporary art, including pioneering
collections and exhibitions of design and
photography.
Already known to visitors from around the
world because of its paintings by Vincent van
Gogh (many of them later transferred to the
Van Gogh Museum upon its creation), the
Stedelijk began its rise to international
prominence after 1945, when curator and
designer Willem Sandberg became the
Director. In addition to expanding the collection
and working directly with many artists,
Sandberg initiated an ambitious and farsighted exhibition program that put the
Stedelijk at the forefront of contemporary art
institutions—a program that continued under
Edy de Wilde (Director 1963–1985), Wim
Beeren (1985–1993), Rudi Fuchs (1993–2003)
and Gijs van Tuyl (2005–2009) and that
contributed greatly to the development of the
Stedelijk’s collection.
Collection
Widely acknowledged as one of the most
important collections of modern and contemporary art and design in the world, the
Stedelijk’s holdings encompass more than
90,000 objects dating from the 1870s to the
present and include painting, sculpture, film
and video, installations, works on paper,
artists’ books, photographs, graphic design,
applied arts and industrial design.
Strengths of the visual art collection include
De Stijl, Amsterdam School, Bauhaus, German
Expressionism, Suprematism, CoBrA, Abstract
Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism and PostMinimalism, Conceptualism and Arte Povera.
The Stedelijk holds key works by artists
including Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg,
Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Charley
Toorop, Marc Chagall, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner,
Henri Matisse, Karel Appel, Asger Jorn,
Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Willem de
Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Ellsworth
Kelly, Andy Warhol, Ed Kienholz, Roy
Lichtenstein, Donald Judd, Bruce Nauman, Sol
LeWitt, Walter de Maria, Mario Merz, Robert
Ryman, Richard Serra, Georg Baselitz, Joan
Jonas, Lawrence Weiner, Hanne Darboven,
Martin Kippenberger, Mike Kelley, Marlene
Dumas, Rineke Dijkstra and many others.
The design collection, renowned as one of
the great strengths of the Stedelijk, has
incomparable holdings of works by Gerrit
Rietveld, Gijs Bakker, Jan van der Vaart, Tapio
Wirkkala, Josef Hoffmann, Lisbeth
Oestreicher, Marcel Breuer, Tadanori Yokoo,
Richard Hutten, Marguerite WildenhainFriedländer, Ingo Maurer, A.M. Cassandre,
Ettore Sottsass and Sheila Hicks. The graphic
design collection includes more than 20,000
posters, including work of prominent designers
like Willem Sandberg, Wim Crouwel, Anthon
Beeke and Walter Nikkels, all of whom served
as designers for the Museum and contributed
to its identity.
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Exhibitions
The many influential exhibitions organized by
the Stedelijk over the years have included its
landmark 1905 presentation of the work of
Vincent van Gogh; Moderne Kunstkring (1911
and 1912), introducing Cubism to the
Netherlands; La Section d’Or—Paris (1920), an
exhibition of geometric abstraction, designed
by Theo van Doesburg; Russian Art (1923), the
first presentation of Malevich and
Suprematism in the Netherlands; CoBrA
(1949), the decisive exhibition of the work of
this influential group; De Stijl (1951), the first
historical retrospective of the movement;
Bewogen Beweging (1961), a major traveling
exhibition of kinetic art; Dylaby (1962), a visitorparticipation exhibition in which artists
including Jean Tinguely, Daniel Spoerri, Niki
de Saint Phalle and Robert Rauschenberg
collaborated to turn the galleries into a
“dynamic labyrinth”; the first large museum
survey of Ed van der Elsken (1966); Op Losse
Schroeven (On Loose Screws) (1969), the first
major European exhibition to explore the use of
transitory materials in movements such as land
art, Arte Povera and Post-Minimalism; 60 80:
Attitudes, Concepts, Images (1982), a major
survey of two decades of Minimalism,
Conceptualism and performance art; the first
solo museum exhibition of Cindy Sherman
(1982); and a major traveling exhibition of
Rineke Dijkstra (2005).
Education
Education is at the heart of the Stedelijk, as
the institution is at the core of Amsterdam’s
arts community. The education program
encompasses family tours and workshops;
programs for primary and secondary schools;
an adult-education initiative, teaching Dutch as
a second language with the assistance of
docent-led discussions of works of art; and the
Stedelijk’s signature education initiative, the
peer education group Blikopeners.
A group of young people (ages 15 to 19) of
diverse backgrounds, coming from Amsterdam
and its vicinity, the Blikopeners advise the
Stedelijk’s education program and organize
and conduct activities, tours and events at the
Museum. A new group is recruited every year,
ensuring that the exchange of ideas and
opinions between the Bllikopeners and the
public remains fresh and engaging.
SMBA
Established in 1993 in a repurposed clothing
workshop, located in an area of central
Amsterdam with a high concentration of
contemporary art galleries, Stedelijk Museum
Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA) is the Stedelijk’s
project space. SMBA organizes exhibitions of
Amsterdam-based art in an international
context, with an emphasis on new trends
in painting and sculpture, video, photography,
performance, installation, design and new
media. SMBA also initiates exchanges with
arts organizations in other countries and
presents a regularly scheduled lecture
program, in which leading national and
international theorists, critics and artists
address topics in contemporary visual culture.
Library
One of the most important art resources
in the Netherlands, the Stedelijk’s Library
comprises more than 130,000 books and
exhibition catalogues, 210 ongoing periodical
subscriptions, hundreds of documentary
videos and a very extensive collection of
newspaper clippings, invitations and other
ephemera. Originally established as a staff
resource, the Library has been freely
accessible to the public since 1957.
Building Program
The Stedelijk has undergone its most
ambitious building project in more than a
century. The historic building of the Stedelijk
is thoroughly renovated to house the first
comprehensive installation of the museum’s
renowned permanent collection of modern and
contemporary art and design. At the same
time, a boldly contemporary new building
designed by Dutch bureau Benthem Crouwel
Architects houses the museum’s influential
temporary exhibitions and a range of public
amenities. The new 9,423 square meters
structure (101,428 square feet) re-orients the
entire Museum to face onto the great public
lawn of Amsterdam’s Museumplein (Museum
Plaza), creating an active common ground for
the first time among the Stedelijk and its
neighbors, the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh
Museum and the Concertgebouw.
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