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! The museum is closed ! The Stedelijk Museum has closed again its doors in October of 2011, for the final phase of the prolonged reconstruction. The museum expects the grand opening to be in 2012, after the completion of the expansion project.The Stedelijk Museum or as the Dutch call it short Stedelijk (Municipal) strives to be one of the most innovative and interesting museums of modern art in the world. Presently as almost all major Amsterdam museums in a painful and prolonged renovation, Stedelijk is planned to reopen in 2012. The Stedelijk Museum ever since the opening in 1895 drew controversies for its artistic choice, its policy and its financial decisions. The Buildings – Old and New The Stedelijk´s main building was built in the years 1891-1895 at Paulus Potterstraat, at the short walking distance from the Rijksmuseum, to house the collection of art and antiques left to the city by Sophia Augusta Lopez Suasso de Bruyn. The project of the old Stedelijk building was by A.W.Weissman, Amsterdam city architect at the time. It was a period when Dutch architecture was searching for its values in the historical past. Happily the Stedelijk´s neo renaissance façade, decorated with several figurative sculptures, has been modernized and simplified during the following renovations, losing much of its rich decorum.  In 1938 the Stedelijk became the state museum of modern art. In 1973, from the part of the Stedelijk Museum collection, the Van Gogh Museum has been created, just at its side, in a modern building created by Gerrit Rietveld.Still, people of Amsterdam like the old Weissman building, probably because of the contrast it creates with the modern collections exhibited inside. Present renovations will double the exhibition space of the museum by adding a big and new modern building behind. It was designed by an Amsterdam firm Benthem Crouwel Architects, in the intriguing shape of the immense bath standing on its legs directly on the Museumplein. The Collection The Stedelijk Museum has one of the richest modern art collections in the world. Along with all big names of modern painting movements as Impressionists, Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism and it has a unique collection of 29 paintings by Casimir Malevich, equally exceptional collection of De Stijl and Cobra movement, superb Dutch photography collection, a very good collection of design and furniture, and interesting collection of European and American trends in art since 1950 as works of Matisse, Picasso, Newman en Rauschenberg, Warhol completed with Italian Arte Povera and German modern painting. The Temporary Stedelijk – the feel  Since the end of August 2010, the old building of the Stedelijk Museum has been open to the public, with a series of actual modern art exhibitions. You may see the traditional quarters of The Stedelijk after the renovation. While most of the work done by the builders remained invisible – new air conditioning, electricity and security installations, the museum looks impressive, with is clean luminous white spaces, beautiful architecture, ever-transparent plan of the exhibition space. You may also see the permanent mural painting by Karel Appel from 1956 on the wall of the Temporary Stedelijk restaurant.Temporary modern art exhibitions are held in most of the museum’s rooms. Some of the works are interesting, other less. However even now, many Stedelijk’s rooms remain empty, which is symbolic for the situation of the contemporary art. The confusion about values and the role of art in our life is apparent in these fine-looking 19th C. rooms. While the new building of the museum gets shape, visitor will still have to wait to see the real riches of the Stedelijk Museum collection. Open: Tuesday – Sunday: 10 am – 6 pm Thursday: 10 am – 10 pm Visiting address Temporary Stedelijk 2 Paulus Potterstraat 13 1071 CX Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum, after the grand reopening: Museumplein 10 1071 DJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands Homepage: www.stedelijk.nl |
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