SZINE #1:
Future Origins: Tracing the Stedelijk’s Financial Foundations—and How to Respond to Them Today
The Stedelijk Museum concludes its 125th anniversary with the publication of the inaugural Szine, commissioning cultural historian Nancy Jouwe to research the cultural and financial circumstances of the museum’s founding. While it is common knowledge that wealthy local citizens first established the Stedelijk to house modern and contemporary art and design, less is known about the source of that wealth—though conjecture now abounds. With the title “The Stedelijk: A Museum in Imperial Amsterdam”, Jouwe places the Stedelijk in the late nineteenth century, and details how wealth from colonized countries was used to project an aura of cultural discernment, aided by Amsterdam’s ambitious city council. An interview between the Stedelijk’s curator-at-large Yvette Mutumba and director Rein Wolfs further expands on Jouwe’s commission, and the future of the museum. We advise reading in tandem with the editorial by Mutumba and Maurice Rummens in Stedelijk Studies Journal #11 on the museum’s material history and the current social environment of European museums.
For its inaugural issue, the Stedelijk commissioned cultural historian Nancy Jouwe to conduct research into the cultural and financial circumstances surrounding the founding of the museum. It is common knowledge that a group of wealthy local citizens founded the Stedelijk as a museum of modern and contemporary art and design. However, not much was known about the origin of their funds, and in which cultural-historical and colonial context this took place; at the same time, there have been recent conjectures and speculations about this.
Besides the article by Nancy Jouwe, the Szine also contains an interview between Yvette Mutumba, curator-at-large at the Stedelijk, and director Rein Wolfs. Together, they talk about Jouwe’s findings, and the future of the museum.
With the title ‘The Stedelijk: A Museum in Imperial Amsterdam’, Jouwe places the Stedelijk Museum in the cultural-historical context of the late 19th century. She describes how the wealth gained in colonized countries was used to project an aura of cultural discernment, aided and endorsed by an ambitious city council government. Jouwe’s article can be read in tandem with the editorial by Maurice Rummens, in Stedelijk Studies Journal issue 11, on the material history of the museum, and the editorial by Yvette Mutumba on the current European social environment of museums.
Rein Wolfs:
“In the past year, because of ongoing challenges related to the pandemic, we could not celebrate our 125th anniversary in the way we would have liked. However, we were able to look back on our institution in a variety of ways. It is essential that a museum of modern and contemporary art and design also draws on the past to gain deeper insights into the present. Research for our recent exhibition on the work of the Expressionists Kirchner and Nolde, and a contribution by artist Timo Demollin on the International Colonial and Export Trade Exhibition on Museumplein in 1883 for the exhibition In the Presence of Absence, were the impetus for this first Szine. We are delighted that we are now able to provide answers to a broader range of questions.”
Charl Landvreugd, Head of Research and Curatorial Practices at the Stedelijk:
“With each Szine, we aim to create a different awareness relating to the Stedelijk’s approach to aesthetic, ethical and social issues inside, and outside, the museum walls. For which research plays a fundamental role. In the first Szine, Nancy Jouwe examines the big picture, scrupulously shedding light on the context and era in which the Stedelijk originated. Her perspective, combined with the conversation between Rein and Yvette about the present and the future, equips us with a broad view of the museum, and ways in which we can use this knowledge to create a balanced, contemporary museum awareness.”
