Stedelijk Studies - Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Sorry, you have Javascript Disabled! To see this page as it is meant to appear, please enable your Javascript!

Stedelijk Studies

a budding platform for surfable research at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

The Stedelijk is continuously engaged in active research to improve its existing methods and to design new ways of dealing with the full breadth of museum practices: from registration, tracking, the depot, transportation, restoration, to presentation, among many other things related to the collection.

Exhibition Surinamese School

Painting from Paramaribo to Amsterdam

View the exhibition

Recently published

All 9 /Call for Papers 0 /Essays 3 /News 0 /Research Logs 6 /Surinamese School 0 /Talking Textiles 0 /Tomorrow is a different day 0

The Power of the Everyday: Reflections on The Surinamese School exhibition

Essay by Chandra Frank

July 8, 2021/by Nikolai

In the artist’s words: Barricade

by Esiri Erheriene-Essi

July 1, 2021/by Nikolai

In the artist’s words: The dream of a 1000 shipwrecks

by Patricia Kaersenhout

July 1, 2021/by Nikolai

Languages of Resistance and Protest in Dutch-Surinamese Painting

Essay by Oneika Russel

July 1, 2021/by Nikolai

The Start: Finding the Tapestries in the Collection

by Amanda Pinatih

July 1, 2021/by Nikolai

Surinamese School: Reflections on History, Art, Decolonization and Cultural Identity

Essay by Azu Nwagbogu

June 24, 2021/by Nikolai

Finding more tapestries acquired at the Fodor Museum

by Amanda Pinatih

June 16, 2021/by Nikolai

Checking the tapestries in the depot

by Amanda Pinatih

June 16, 2021/by Nikolai

Correspondance between Ramses Wissa Wassef and Willem Sandberg

by Amanda Pinatih

June 15, 2021/by Nikolai

Current Journal Issue

Issue #10: Imagining the Future of Digital Archives and Collections

Share this page

Stedelijk Studies on Instagram

The budding artist that painted these self-portrai

The budding artist that painted these self-portraits was soon to become a central figure of modern art.
Jan Toorop is the first artist of color to have their work in the Stedelijk’s collection. He donated the first piece in 1909, which, after some struggle because of its highly modern character, was accepted. In 1929 and 1932 more acquisitions followed. Toorop’s father was a Javanese-Norwegian administrator, and his mother’s parents were of Chinese and British-Indian descent. Toorop was only 11 years old when he left Java for his education in the Netherlands. He would never see his country of birth and parents again.
Toorop gave his own distinctive twist to several modern art movements. This poster (swipe) from 1894 would cement his role as one of the leaders of the art nouveau movement, in the Netherlands also referred to as the “sla-oliestijl”.
Image 1. Jan Toorop, Self-portrait, 1884, oil on canvas, 58 x 39.5 cm, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, gift of N.V. Koninklijke Kunstzaal Kleykamp, The Hague (NL), 1931
Image 2. Jan Toorop, Zelfportret in studio, 1883, oil on canvas, 50.8 x 36.2 cm, Credits: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Image 3. Jan Toorop, Delftsche slaolie, 1894, poster, lithography, 98.1 x 67.2 cm, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, anonymous gift

Did you know that the artist brothers Agus and Ott

Did you know that the artist brothers Agus and Otto Djaya exhibited their work at the Stedelijk while spying on behalf of the Indonesian independence movement?
Agus and Otto Djaya arrived in Amsterdam 1947, officially as part of a diplomatic Indonesian-Dutch ‘cultural exchange’ program. It was no coincidence however that during their exhibition at the Stedelijk at the end of 1947, in Indonesia liberation groups were in the midst of violent conflict with Dutch colonial forces.
This painting shows Revolution, as seen through the eyes of Otto Djaya at the time. It is a cartoon-like depiction of a group of freedom fighters, conveying Indonesian resistance in fast, angular contours. This expressive style is informed by the Indonesian cultural debates that were ongoing since around 1935, discussions about modernism and the ambition to develop a visual language that frees itself from the picturesque ‘beautiful Indonesia’ colonial painting tradition. The painting is currently on view as part of the Base collection display at the Stedelijk Museum.
Otto Djaya, Revolution, 1947, oil on canvas, 45 x 61 cm, donated by the artist.

This is most likely the first ever presentation of

This is most likely the first ever presentation of the women’s football painting genre—at the Stedelijk Museum in 1928.
To mark the Olympic Summer Games in Amsterdam, a sports-themed exhibition was organized at the Stedelijk. All the paintings seen here were made by Ángel Zárraga, the husband of Jeannette Ivanoff, who was the coach of the women’s football team Les sportives de Paris.
Newspaper articles from the time indicate that these paintings caused quite a stir, especially the depiction of the players strong, muscular legs. Some sources even suggest Zarraga made some minor changes in response to such criticism, adding an earring to one of the players and a delicate watch to another.
From WWI onwards, women’s football matches started to draw large audiences. However, a call for further professionalization leads to a ban from training and competition facilities, first in the UK in 1921, followed closely by its neighbors. These bans weren’t lifted in countries such as the Netherlands, the UK, and France until the 1970’s.
Image 1. Ángel Zárraga’s football paintings at the art-Olympiade (Concours et exposition d’art olympique) in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1928. Photo: Spaarnestad.
Image 2. Ángel Zárraga’s football and rugby paintings at the art-Olympiade (Concours et exposition d’art olympique) in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1928. Photo: Spaarnestad.

Washing hands with Bruce Nauman: beyond hygiene…

Washing hands with Bruce Nauman: beyond hygiene…
Played upside down with a constantly shifting color filter. The sound is a little too loud, and the channels are not-quite synchronized: this video-installation is designed to be an uncomfortable experience.
What do you see? A fear of contamination? Pontius Pilate washing his hands in innocence? Tantalus and eternal damnation?
This work, and many others by Nauman, can be enjoyed from tomorrow onwards at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Bruce Nauman, Washing Hands Abnormal, 1996, video installation, color, sound, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, acquired with the generous support of the Vereniging Rembrandt (Rembrandt Society) and the Mondriaan Foundation.

Did you know that not only wealthy men are to than

Did you know that not only wealthy men are to thank for establishing and allowing the Stedelijk to flourish during its early days?
These two works, the painting by Israëls and the Barzaghi sculpture shown in the first two images, reflect the dominant taste of wealthy Dutch citizens during the 19th century. They were part of one of the most substantial early donations to the museum: together with more than sixty other pieces, they were bequeathed in 1899 by a woman called Olga Emilie Borski-Sillem.
Borski-Sillem came from an affluent family of bankers and traders. Her mother-in-law, Johanna Borski, is thought to have been the richest Dutch citizen after the king at the time of her death. She had used her fortunes among others to save the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij from bankruptcy, the company responsible for colonial trade with the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).
A commissioned independent researcher is currently investigating the provenance of the capital that financed the Stedelijk’s early acquisitions, as well as its very building blocks. Among others looking into how the foundational donors’ wealth was achieved and sustained, among whom Sophia Augusta Lopez-Suasso discussed in our previous post. This resulting essay will be published this fall—watch this space.Image 1. Jozef Israëls, After the storm, 1858, oil on canvas, 115.5 x 146.5 cm, gift of VVHK, Olga Borski-Sillem’s bequest
Image 2. Francesco Barzaghi, Mozes rescued from the water, 1875, marble, 173 x 58 x 67 cm, gift of VVHK, Olga Borski-Sillem’s bequest
Image 3. Photograph showing two rooms filled with Olga Borski-Sillem’s collection, Stedelijk Museum, 1903
Image 4. Olga Emilie Borski-Sillem, circa 1890

This is the oldest archived object that relates to

This is the oldest archived object that relates to the Stedelijk Museum’s founding. It is the lid of a hat box with a reproduction of a 1893 drawing stuck to it, on which we see the museum construction plans. The museum opened its doors on September 14, 1895.
The inscription ‘Museum Suasso’ references Sophia Adriana Lopez Suasso-de Bruyn, who bequeathed her collection of furniture, jewelry, porcelain, costumes, paintings as well as her fortunes to the municipality of Amsterdam on one condition: that it would be used to fill a new museum. This would signify the beginning of the Stedelijk Museum. A real curate’s egg, her collection was slowly but surely shed, but her family crest and commemorative plaque still adorn the facade and former entrance hall of the Stedelijk.
Image 1. Hatbox with reproduction of construction drawings of the new Stedelijk Museum, c. 1893, donated by H.F. Roman jr., Leiden, 1957.
Image 2. The same lid, a couple of years after the donation, adorning the study of Stedelijk Museum director Willem Sandberg, seen at his desk.
Image 3. Thérèse Schwartze, Sophia Adriana Lopez Suasso – de Bruijn, 1890. Amsterdam Museum.