Rijksmuseum presents recent modern photography acquisitions in exhibition
Publication date: 04 May 2023 - 11:09
This summer’s New Horizons exhibition at the Rijksmuseum showcases highlights of modern colour photography. Over the past few years the Rijksmuseum has been increasingly active collecting modern colour photography. This exhibition comprises 30 photographs by Dutch and foreign photographers such as Viviane Sassen, Michael Wolf, Pieter Hugo and Ruud van Empel. Most of the exhibits were either gifted to the museum or purchased with the support of private funds, and are being shown for the first time. New Horizons. Modern Photography at the Rijksmuseum runs from 29 June to 3 September 2023.
Colour photography – the new standard
New Horizons traces a critical transitional period in the history of photography. Until the 1970s, many photographers had no interest in working in colour: in 1961, the American photographer Robert Frank said ‘Black and white are the colours of photography.’ To many photographers, black and white was the standard. Sixty years on, the reverse is true, and colour has suffused all forms of photography. It’s difficult now to imagine it being any other way. While colour photography is a relatively new development, it continues to build on long-standing traditions. Previously, important subjects such as Suriname were only represented in the Rijksmuseum’s photographic collection by portraits and landscapes from the 19th and early 20th century, alongside images of the independence in 1975. In 2013, Viviane Sassen’s series Pikin Slee added a new chapter on this subject to the collection.
Art–documentary crossover
While the rise of colour photography led to the convergence of artistic and documentary practices, and the blurring of genre boundaries, photography remains a key medium for showing how people live. Some photographers achieve this in indirect and subtle ways. Henk Wildschut, for example, documents the lives of refugees in Calais without showing the people themselves: we see only the tents and other structures in which they live. And rather than taking interiors as his subject to reflect on living conditions in Hong Kong, Michael Wolf captures the alienating anonymity and vastness of skyscraper exteriors. These photographers seem to be perpetuating a tradition through which artists mould the visible to their will, to reveal other worlds – as do Jacquie Maria Wessels with her still lives in car repair garages; Anne Geene with her ordering of nature; and Ruud van Empel, with his utterly new worlds created from thin air.
The Rijksmuseum Photo Collection
The Rijksmuseum photography collection contains more than 160,000 objects including vintage prints, albums, photo books and other outstanding works. Spanning the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, it offers a representative selection from the entire history of the medium, with acknowledged masterpieces by Dutch and foreign photographers alongside advertising, fashion, journalistic and scientific work. The museum’s photography curators Hans Rooseboom and Mattie Boom are the recent recipients of the prestigious AIPAD Award 2023. The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) presents the prize annually to a leading figure in the world of photography.
Vital support
The Rijksmuseum is grateful for all the forms of support it receives. Government funding, contributions from the business sector and funding organisations, as well as gifts, bequests and Friends are all of vital importance to the Rijksmuseum. The Photography Gallery at the Rijksmuseum is made possible by support from Baker McKenzie.
Creditlines
Purchased with the support of Familie W. Cordia/Rijksmuseum Fonds. © Viviane Sassen
© Martin Roemers
Purchased with the support of the Stefanie Georgina Alexa Nühn Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds. © Henk Wildschut
Purchased with the support of the Stefanie Georgina Alexa Nühn Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds. Courtesy of Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen