For the love of art
Discover 80 important acquisitions for 40 Dutch museums in a single exhibition!
The Kröller-Müller Museum and the Rembrandt Association are jointly organizing the exhibition Als kunst je lief is (For the love of art). For this occasion we brought together more than 80 works from 40 museums, which were acquired with the support of the Rembrandt Association in the period 2008–2018. The exhibition shows the full range of the acquisitions: paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, etc. All the works have become visitors’ favourites at their respective museums. The oldest work is about three thousand years old, the most recent dates from 2016.
A feast of unexpected encounters
The exhibition will be a feast of unexpected encounters with artworks and objects presented with great care. Normally you would have to visit these 40 museums throughout the Netherlands to see their visitors’ favourites. Now, for one time only, they are on display in surprising, never previously seen combinations at the Kröller-Müller Museum.
The exhibition is curated by Peter Hecht, emeritus professor of art history at the University of Utrecht and fellow of the Rembrandt Association. The design of the exhibition is in the hands of Maarten Spruyt, exhibition maker. You can download the text in the exhibition here.
Satellite programme throughout the Netherlands
As a supplement and reference to the exhibition in Otterlo, small museum displays are set up throughout the Netherlands. A total of 15 museums are collaborating in this programme, from Groningen to Middelburg and from Haarlem to Maastricht. In each presentation, a work acquired with the support of the Rembrandt Association in the past decade is shown in combination with other collection pieces to which it relates. This combination shows that the newly acquired work lifts the existing collection to a higher level, places a new emphasis or fills a gap.
Publication and side programme
For the love of art is accompanied by a publication about the importance of collecting for the public. The publication also discusses the most important works in the exhibition. It is available for purchase in the museum shop and online shop. In addition, there is an extensive side programme with, among other things, a series of lectures, a symposium and a Rembrandt Association route through the permanent collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum.
On the Rembrandt Association
The Rembrandt Association was established in 1883 by a small number of art-loving individuals. Together they were able to prevent masterpieces from Dutch cultural history from being sold abroad; in other cases they managed to buy them back for the Netherlands. Since then, the Rembrandt Association has been helping to enrich and maintain the Dutch public art collections, to pass them on to future generations. The Rembrandt Association has 15,000 members.
Do you want to become a member? You will find all info here.
