Longing for the Garden
dal 20/6/2007 al 22/9/2007
Segnalato da
20/6/2007
Longing for the Garden
Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo
Sculptures from storage
Sculptures from storage
On 21 June the Kröller-Müller Museum opens its summer exhibition entitled Longing for the garden – sculptures from storage. The exhibition coincides with the publication of the book Sculpture garden – Kröller-Müller Museum. The exhibition runs until 23 September 2007. The exhibition focuses on sculptures that were purchased specifically for the sculpture garden but which are no longer permanently displayed there, often because their materials proved unsuited to long-term display outdoors. Nonetheless, they are part of the sculpture garden’s collection and it is fascinating to display them once again in the context of the garden in their weathered state, bearing the traces of their earlier life outdoors.
Some of the works are displayed outside on the events area, including a 15-metre high Schwarz/weisse Doppelfahne, a black and white ‘double’ flag by the German artist Reiner Ruthenbeck. Other works are shown in the galleries and corridors of the Quist wing, including Alberto Giacometti’s L’Homme qui Marche II and Bruce Nauman’s Diamond Mind. The large sculpture gallery contains the imposing and colourful works with which young English sculptors Philip King and Anthony Caro breathed new life into the sculpture garden in the late 1960s. The print room is filled with preparatory studies and models for realised works such as Jean Dubuffet’s Jardin d’émail as well as plans for unrealised works. The single factor uniting these diverse exhibits is that they were all acquired for the sculpture garden. Anthony Caro, Pompadour, 1963
Since its opening in 1961 the Kröller-Müller Museum’s sculpture garden has become one of the most famous sculpture gardens in the world. Here year after year a stream of visitors from the Netherlands and abroad enjoy sculptures in a natural setting. The sculpture garden – a surprising ‘little paradise’ within a densely-populated country – has a fascinating history that makes it much more than simply a museum’s collection of sculptures dotted around the Veluwe landscape. It owes its unique character to an uninterrupted and progressive policy formulated by four museum directors and their visions of avant-garde sculpture, its relationship to nature and the organisation of landscape. This story is told for the first time in Sculpture garden – Kröller-Müller Museum, a richly illustrated account of the garden’s history, including a preview of its future.
Kroller-Muller Museum
Houtkampweg 6 - Otterlo