Year ahead 2022

REVOLUSI! Indonesia independent

11 February to 5 June 2022 Philips Wing

The Rijksmuseum presents Revolusi! Indonesia Independent, from 11 February to 5 June 2022. The exhibition - curated by Dutch and Indonesian curators - offers an international perspective on the struggle for independence of Indonesia during the 1945-1949 period. The focus is on people who experienced the revolution at close quarters: fighters, artists, diplomats, politicians, journalists and others. Their individual experiences reflect a history with many faces and many voices.

The more than 200 objects on display - with loans from Australia, Belgium, United Kingdom, Indonesia and the Netherlands - are witnesses to this turbulent past. From privately-owned keepsakes to paintings loaned out for the first time by Indonesian art collections.

The appointment of the Indonesian curators Amir Sidharta and Bonnie Triyana has been made possible by the Johan Huizinga Fund / Rijksmuseum Fund. The additional programme accompanying the exhibition with room for dialogue has been made possible in part by vfonds.

Vincent Mentzel: The Power of the Image

28 January to 5 June 2022 Photo Gallery

Vincent Mentzel (1945) has long been one of the Netherlands most iconic photographers. As a photojournalist at NRC Handelsblad he helped define the news image. As well as reporting on the national political scene for many years, he travelled the world to cover political and other current affairs. Mentzel has multiple World Press Photo and Silver Camera awards to his name. In the course of his career, he has seen photography rise to become a self-contained and powerful medium offering opportunities for artistry. The exhibition traces this development through Mentzel’s own work. In 2011, Vincent Mentzel transferred a large selection of his photographic work to the Rijksmuseum.

In 2012, the prominent Dutch photojournalist Vincent Mentzel set up a designated fund with the Rijksmuseum. Thanks to this fund photographs from the Rijksmuseum collection with a significant journalistic value are made available for the public.

Barbara Hepworth in the Rijksmuseum Gardens

3 June to 23 October 2022 Rijksmuseum Gardens

The ninth edition of the annual sculpture exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Gardens will be devoted to the English sculptor Barbara Hepworth (Wakefield, 10 January 1903 – St. Ives, 20 May 1975). Hepworth is one of the key figures of British modernist sculpture. This exhibition provides an overview of Hepworth’s post-war work, with an emphasis on the 1960s and early 70s. Many of the exhibits are important public works that have never previously been moved from their place. This selection presents Hepworth at the very peak of her artistic prowess.

The sculpture exhibition has been made possible in part by a private donor/Rijksmuseum Fund, Pon and the Rijksmuseum Club

Modern Japanese Lacquer

1 July to 4 September 2022 Philips Wing

Lacquer art, one of the oldest forms of applied art in Japan, has been practiced in the country for thousands of years. Building up the dozens of layers of lacquer, decorated with silver and gold powder, demands an astonishing level of focus. It is a process that can span many months. The exhibition Modern Japanese Lacquer presents the finest lacquerware from the early 20th century. This selection of 70 works from all over the world shows how lacquer continues to reinvent itself, undergoing a transformation from traditional depictions in gold, silver and black to become an art form of exuberant colours and bold designs.

The exhibition is curated by guest curator Jan Dees and in partnership with the Museum für Lackkunst, Münster. The collection of Jan Dees and René van der Star forms the core of the exhibition.

XXL Paper

1 July to 4 September 2022 Philips Wing

XXL Paper presents the largest works on paper in the Rijksmuseum collection, most of which have never been displayed before, due to their size. The selected works include actual-size design drawings of stained-glass windows for St Bavochurch in Haarlem, dating from 1541, as well as a vast 19th-century hand-painted cyclorama no fewer than 23 metres in width that was recently discovered in one of the Rijksmuseum’s depots.

The restoration of the cyclorama was made possible by the Bank Ten Cate & Cie. Fund/Rijksmuseum Fund.  

Early Photographs of Japan

1 July to 4 September 2022 Photography Gallery

It was a very close run thing when fire almost destroyed the photographs taken around 1865 by Antoon Bauduin in Japan. Fortunately, some were saved and could be restored. These unique images are the earliest photographs ever taken by a Dutch person in Japan. Antoon Bauduin had been invited by the Japanese government to train young Japanese doctors, and together with his brother Albert he shot photographs in and around Deshima and Nagasaki. The brothers also purchased photographs while travelling around the country. The images offer a rare glimpse of a country going through major changes. The exhibition Early Photographs of Japan presents nearly 50 photographs from the collection of the Bauduin brothers.

Munster van Heuven-Sprenger van Eyk gifted her family’s photographs to the Rijksmuseum so that they could be restored and conserved, to ensure their availability to future generations.

Crawly creatures

30 September 2022 to 15 January 2023 Philips Wing

The crawly creatures featured in this exhibition are the little creatures such as toads, lizards, spiders and insects which evoke powerful emotions. For some they are utterly terrifying; others find them extremely beautiful. Where once they were associated with death and the devil, later people also began to see their beauty, with artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Wenzel Jamnitzer, Jan van Kessel and Maria Sybilla Merian depicting them in magnificent works of art. Scientists, meanwhile, have collected, drawn and studied them, and peered at them under the microscope. Crawly creatures explores this fascination for the world of the small, and the intriguing relationship between art and science.

This exhibition has been made possible in part by a private donor/Rijksmuseum Fund. 

Clara the Rhinoceros

30 September 2022 to 15 January 2023 Philips Wing

In July 1741, a Dutch East India Company ship arrived in Rotterdam from India carrying an animal that no one in Europe had ever seen before: a rhinoceros. Her name was Clara. Clara and her owner toured all over Europe. Wherever she went she caused a sensation, and she became a great celebrity. Many artists painted her and scholars studied her carefully, from horn to tail. It was thanks to Clara that rhinoceroses were now depicted as they really looked. Far from her natural habitat, Clara was surrounded only by people and would never see a fellow rhinoceros again.

The exhibition on Clara’s story shows how new knowledge changed a worldview, with art playing a central role. The centrepiece is the life-size portrait of Clara from the Staatliches Museum in Schwerin, painted by Jean-Baptiste Oudry in 1749 in Paris.

This exhibition was made possible in part by a private donor/Rijksmuseum Fund. 

Operation Night Watch

Night Watch Gallery

Operation Night Watch is the most extensive ever study of The Night Watch. We are using the latest, most advanced technology to determine the most effective approach to conserving this masterpiece for future generations. The current research phase is expected to conclude within months, with the subsequent restoration phase commencing in 2021. Research and restoration are being carried out in a glass-walled chamber in the Night Watch Gallery, meaning visitors to the museum can follow its progress live.

AkzoNobel is the main partner of Operation Night Watch.

Operation Night Watch is made possible by The Bennink Foundation, C.L. de Carvalho-Heineken, PACCAR Foundation, Piet van der Slikke & Sandra Swelheim, American Express Foundation, Familie De Rooij, Het AutoBinck Fonds, TBRM Engineering Solutions, Dina & Kjell Johnsen, Familie D. Ermia, Familie M. van Poecke, Bruker Nano Analytics, Henry M. Holterman Fonds, Irma Theodora Fonds, Luca Fonds, Piek-den Hartog Fonds, Stichting Zabawas, Cevat Fonds, Johanna Kast-Michel Fonds, Marjorie & Jeffrey A. Rosen, Stichting Thurkowfonds, Familie Van Ogtrop Fonds and the Night Watch Fund.