Essays

pondering notes on exhibitions and collections at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Stedelijk Studies essays begin where exhibitions end

here you can find commissioned in-depth texts written by today’s leading thinkers. Welcoming research as a tool to push forward curatorial practice, these essays shed a critical light on museum programming.

Drawing Faces (in Terror Times): An Introduction

by Edwin Nasr
September 26, 2024/by Nikolai

Through the Roar of Cosmic Cataclysms

by Tatiana Kochubinska and Tetiana Zhmurko
March 28, 2024/by Nikolai

No White in Sight

by Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei
October 27, 2023/by Nikolai

Anti-Semitism in the 19th and early 20th centuries

by Maurice Rummens
October 11, 2023/by Nikolai

Bakhyt Bubikanova

by Yuliya Sorokina
August 16, 2023/by Nikolai

From Image to Smell

The Role of the Olfactory Sense in Contemporary Art Experience - by Jonas van Kappel
June 15, 2023/by Nikolai

From Modern to Modernism

Introduction by Maurice Rummens and Ingeborg de Roode
May 9, 2023/by Nikolai

Announcement without Resolution: On Anne Imhof’s YOUTH

by Vincent van Velsen
January 25, 2023/by Nikolai

On Re-enchantment and Cosmic Hopes

by Mira Asriningtyas
November 24, 2022/by Nikolai

In Museums We Trust

by Yvette Mutumba
November 22, 2022/by Nikolai

Architecture as Theater

by Infraestudio
October 25, 2022/by Nikolai

Persuasions in Liminal Spaces

by Nafisa Rizvi
October 11, 2022/by Nikolai

Music, Painting, Intuition, and Calculation

Sedje Hémon and the Stedelijk Museum
October 4, 2022/by Nikolai

Abdias do Nascimento: Being an Event of Love

by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung
September 22, 2022/by Nikolai

Wake up and smell the coffee: El Dorado is right here in the Netherlands!

by Bart Krieger
June 29, 2022/by Nikolai

Art as Colonial Contact Zone

Essay by Paul Basu
March 29, 2022/by Nikolai

Looking Twice: The Presence of Absence in Die Brücke Art Histories

A Critical Reflection on the exhibition "Kirchner and Nolde: Expressionism. Colonialism." by Lisa Hilli
February 9, 2022/by Nikolai

How Textiles Talk and What They Have to Say

Essay by Amanda Pinatih
December 16, 2021/by Nikolai

Straight Innocence

Essay by Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei
October 13, 2021/by Carlos

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

Essay by Chandra Frank
July 8, 2021/by Nikolai

Languages of Resistance and Protest in Dutch-Surinamese Painting

Essay by Oneika Russel
July 1, 2021/by Nikolai

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

Essay by Azu Nwagbogu 
June 24, 2021/by Nikolai