stedelijk museum amsterdam

Stedelijk Museum

The Stedelijk Museum, or as the Dutch call it, the “little Stedelijk,” stands as one of the most innovative and interesting modern art museums in the world. Since its opening in 1895, the Stedelijk has been the subject of controversy over its artistic choices, policies and financial decisions.

The Buildings – Old and New

The main area of the Stedelijk was built between 1891 and 1895 in the Paulus Potterstraat, a short walk from the Rijks Museum, to preserve the collection of art and antiquities left to the city by Sophia Augusta Lopez Suasso de Bruyn.

The design of the old Stedelijk building was done by A.W.Weissman, a great Amsterdam architect at the time. It was a period when Dutch architecture was looking for its values in the historical past. Fortunately, the neo-renaissance style of the Stedelijk’s facade, decorated with various sculptures, was modernized and simplified in subsequent renovations, losing much of its decoration.

In 1938, Stedelijk became a museum of modern art. In 1973, from the collection of the Stedelijk Museum, the Van Gogh Museum was created, right next door, in a modern building by Gerrit Rietveld.

However, the people of Amsterdam still love the old Weissman building, probably because of the contrast it creates with the modern exhibitions on display. The current renovations will double the size of the museum’s exhibition space, adding a large modern building behind it. It was designed by the Amsterdam firm Benthem Crouwel Architects.

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The collection

The Stedelijk Museum has one of the richest and most modern art collections in the world. With renowned names of modern art movements such as Impressionism, Fovism, Expressionism has a unique collection of 29 paintings by Casimir Malevich, an equally outstanding collection of the De Stikl and Cobra movement, a superb collection of Dutch photography, a very good collection of design and furniture, and an interesting collection of European and American art trends since 1950 such as works by Matisse, Picasso, Newman and Rauchenberg, Warhol with Italian Arte Povera and also German modern paintings.

How to get to the museum

Open every day from 10 am to 6 pm

Admission: €20, free for children under 18

https://www.stedelijk.nl

Streetcars 2, 3, 5 and 12 (Van Baerlestraat stop) or streetcars 16 and 24 (Museumplein stop)

Museumplein 10 1071 DJ Amsterdam

https://g.page/stedelijk-museum-amsterdam