Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam reopens April 13th
It has been buried under scaffolding and dustsheets for almost a decade, shielded from the 21st century. Now, €375m later, with 12,000 square metres of airy exhibition space, 52,000 new bricks, a spectacular entrance and a fresh lease of life, the Rijksmuseum is back. Never has a national museum undergone such a metamorphosis.
The space has been sliced and diced by Cruz y Ortiz architects of Seville, who have restored the original layout conceived by Pierre Cuypers in 1885. A tight sequence of 80 chronological galleries will now whisk us through 800 years of Dutch art and history. With streamlined edges, slick glassy add-ons and dazzling courtyards, the Rijksmuseum is almost unrecognisable—but it hasn’t become a stark white cube. Jean-Michel Wilmotte, who won wide acclaim for his interior design at the Louvre, has chosen fabrics and furniture in tune with the 19th-century building.
There are 8,000 works on display, including “The Bend in the Herengracht” by Gerrit Berckheyde (1671-72, above). Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” (1642) is the only painting not to have moved. There are 30 hefty rooms for the Golden Age and a Gallery of Honour for Vermeer, Steen and Hals, but also 123 new pieces, such as Yves Saint Laurent’s Mondrian Dress (1965).
The showstopper is the Asian Pavilion. A freestanding zig-zag structure surrounded by water, linked to the main building by an underground passage, it stands effortlessly between the great walls of history and will house a trove of Asian art. It faces the new landscaped gardens, which will stage summer exhibitions of sculpture, led by Henry Moore this June.
If time is tight, there’s the Rijksmuseum Schiphol, the first art museum beyond passport control. Here’s hoping your flight is delayed.
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