The Magnificent Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam ~ Welcomes Our Editor

Written by Stephan Fleischman Tuesday, 10 January 2012 21:29

The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is the main art museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Rotterdam is a city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland, situated in the west of the Netherlands. The museum began in 1847 with the collection of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans (1767–1847). The 1934 building, designed by town architect Ad Van der Steur, fits in with the classic typology of a museum building. The building’s stately appearance, the elegant tower and the dignified staircase clearly show visitors that they are entering a place of significance. A home in which art is protected, screened and guarded. The interior confirms this feeling. In 1958 the collection of businessman Daniël George van Beuningen (1877–1955) was added to the museum, and the museum acquired its current name. The Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam has been built in several stages. Over the years, new wings have been added to the original 1935 brick building by Johan A.G. van der Steur, with its symmetrical frame of museum rooms around two courtyards. In 1972 the Boijmans museum was expanded for the first time, with a wing designed by architect Alexander Bodon. Bodon, in response to performance and installation art and the consequent need for an extensive exhibition area, built a large exhibition hall lit from above. It is a businesslike space whose dimensions mean it can easily be considered as a third - covered - courtyard. In 1991 Hubert-Jan Henket built what is called the Van Beuningen-De Vriese pavilion in high-tech style on the garden side of the museum. Flemish architects Paul Robbrecht and Hilde Daem were responsible for the further expansion of the museum in Rotterdam in 2000-2001. Visit Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and travel through the history of art, from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. Masterpieces by the likes of Bosch, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Dalí represent a variety of art movements. Surprising interventions by contemporary artists serve to heighten the senses. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen shows old masters and modern art, applied arts and design. The museum owns one of the most important prints and drawings collections in the world.. It houses approximately 140,000 objects. In addition to the displays of the permanent collection, each year the museum organizes around 25 temporary exhibitions and numerous public activities. The museum attracts an average of 125,000 monthly visitors. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen aims to stimulate everyone’s enjoyment of art and design in its collections and exhibitions by delivering a coherent programme. In addition to collecting and organising displays and exhibitions, research is an important aspect of the museum’s activities. This research takes place largely behind closed doors, but its results must be made visible. The museum intends to provide an environment in which knowledge, beauty and innovative and controversial ideas are presented to their best advantage. For this reason, the Boijans Van Beuningen museum follows the developments of individual artists and designers over a longer period. The museum has an international profile. With its world-class collections, it has won a place among the top three art museums in the Netherlands. Through its collections, activities and knowledge, the museum provides challenging and meaningful experiences to museum visitors and many more via the web and other media. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen also functions as a meeting place and unifying element for the urban community in which many Rotterdammers – young and old, from north and south, rich and poor – come together and gain an insight into what previous generations have achieved. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is now eleven generations old. The twelfth and thirteenth generations are already actively taking possession of the museum. Visit the website at: http://www.boijmans.nl/

The Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam is famous for its beautiful collection of old and contemporary art. The museum is concerned with art and design that leaves a lasting impression. The museum opts for a broad and interdisciplinary set-up of the collections and exhibitions.The museum presents the work of many masters, including Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Vincent Van Gogh, Christiaan Karel Appel and Willem de Kooning. The museum also shows applied arts from the 14th century onwards, as well as contemporary design. The exhibition program of the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam is very varied. In addition to its permanent displays, the museum organizes alternating exhibitions, mainly of contemporary art. The Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum is a lively centre of art and culture. The museum takes you on a journey through the history of art, from the early middle ages through the 21st century, from Breughel’s ‘The Tower of Babel’ and Rembrandt’s ‘Titus’ to van Dalí’s 'Lippenbank'. The Boijmans Van Beuningen musuem shows top-class pieces and manages some 126,000 objects. The amazing temporary exhibitions, the sculpture garden and the beautiful 1930s architecture make for hours of viewing pleasure in Rotterdam. This museum in Rotterdam devotes special attention to some of art history’s highlights. The focus with respect to paintings is on Rembrandt, Rubens, and the Surrealists. Top drawings by Albrecht Dürer, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti, Fra Bartolommeo (di Pagholo), Giambattista Piranesi, François Boucher and Paul Cézanne will be on display. In the presentation of implements, the Renaissance table culture and the abundant 17th-century bourgeoisie interiors, the modernistic design from the inter-bellum period and contemporary design appeal most to the imagination. Modern art started with Dutch Romanticism and ended with inter-bellum art. Highlights in this part of the circuit are French Impressionism and art on paper of circa 1900, with a special focus on the chimney piece by Gerrit Willem Dijsseldof that was acquired in 2007. Classic icons by Maurizio Cattelan, Rene Magritte and Oskar Kokoschka are combined with recent acquisitions by Yves Tanguy, Joseph Cornell and Max Beckmann. In addition to permanent presentations, the Rotterdam museum mounts spectacular changing exhibitions. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is a dynamic center for art and culture. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen’s collection is world-renowned. The museum has a permanent display of 3000 works, ranging from old masters to contemporary art and from medieval utensils to industrial design. The collections are displayed in the Van der Steur wing. Each year the museum lends 300 to 500 art works to exhibitions all over the world. These works are seen by more than 3 million people each year. Of the 140,000 objects in the collection, over the past 161 years more than 30,000 art works have been donated to the Boijmans Van Beuningen Foundation by more than 2630 individuals, mostly from Rotterdam. Many of these were people who wished to give something back to the city in which they prospered. Every day, dozens of collectors follow in their footsteps. In 2009 and 2010 exhibitions organised by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen were shown internationally in cities such as Wellington (New Zealand), Sydney, Paris, Leuven, Stockholm and London. The museum has a large international network and maintains ongoing relationships with many museums around the world. In its exhibitions programme and research, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen devotes a great deal of attention to talent from Rotterdam – past and present – and the context from which they have emerged.

Artists and designers such as Jacques Jongert, Jaap Gidding, Hella Jongerius, Kees van Dongen, Wally Elenbaas, Daan van Golden, Joep van Lieshout and many emerging artists are represented in the City Collection and have been highlighted in exhibitions and publications based upon intensive art-historical research. Alongside the approximately 25 exhibitions per year in the museum, for the coming five years Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is developing a programme of international contemporary art exhibitions in the Submarine Wharf in the RDM complex. This is a partnership with the Port of Rotterdam, which has provided the necessary funding. Since its establishment, the museum's history had been shaped in a critical way by the activities of private collectors, two of whom have furnished the institution with its double-barreled name. The Utrecht-born lawyer F.J.O. Boijmans bequeathed his collection tot the City of Rotterdam in 1847, so laying the museum's foundations. In 1958 the museum acquired the collection of the shipping magnate D.G. van Beuningen, also a native of Utrecht. This was such a milestone that the museum's name was changed to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.In the post-war period the museum has had increasing funds to pursue its own acquisitions policy, but it continues to profit from the generosity of private collectors. In 1981 Mr. and Mrs. Van Beuningen-de Vriese endowed the museum with a vast collection of pre-industrial domestic artefacts and the museum has recently benefited from its partnership with H+F Patronage in acquiring an outstanding installation by the video artist Pipilotti Rist. A world-class exhibition to match the extraordinary artistic verve of Kees van Dongen will be presented until January 23rd. "All Eyes on Kees van Dongen" will showcase some eighty masterpieces by the renowned painter Kees van Dongen. No fewer than sixty paintings and a selection of drawings, ceramics, posters and photographs are being flown over from leading international collections especially for the exhibition. They are coming from as far afield as New York, Monaco, Geneva and Moscow. The next major exhibition is Hella Jongerius and her unique design products will be hung on the walls and arranged by colour, providing a wonderful insight into her practice as a designer. The exhibition features not only Jongerius’s famous industrial products – such as the IKEA vases – but also unique experiments and countless sketch models. On view until February 13, 2011.