The Cobra Museum of Modern Art and Museum JAN are showcasing the art treasures of the Municipality of Amstelveen in the exhibition Collected for Amstelveen – the municipal art collection. Over the past seventy years, the municipality has assembled a leading collection of visual arts. This versatile collection is now presented to the public for the first time and is free of charge for all residents of Amstelveen.
The municipal art collection
Around 1955, the town council of Amstelveen started to collect visual art, initially without a specific purchasing policy. The choice of particular works or artists depended heavily on the available budget and the administrators involved. The town council commissioned or bought directly from artists, galleries and the former exhibition centre Aemstelle. A lot of cutting-edge art has been collected in the past seventy years, which the Amstelveen museums are now eager to present.
Exhibition in the Cobra Museum of Modern Art
The Cobra Museum of Modern Art is showing a selection of works from the depots of the municipality of Amstelveen. Nationally as well as regionally acclaimed artists are represented in this selection: ranging from Eugène Brands to Jaap Egmond and from Melanie Bonajo to Gerard Schäperkötter. These commissioned, purchased and donated works of art – dating from the 1960s to the present – provide an insight into the municipal art policy.
The Cobra Museum also shows a contemporary reflection on the municipal art collection. Johannes Verwoerd Studio has created a digital depot by means of augmented reality in which you can see the artworks from the collection that are not on display.
Exhibition in Museum JAN
Museum JAN shows a selection from the so-called Topographic Atlas. From 1958 onwards, the town council commissioned artists to record the changing landscape in and around Amstelveen. This resulted in a collection of watercolours, drawings, photographs and some paintings. The exhibition in Museum JAN also features three new works by contemporary artists who responded to the Amstelveen landscape in a contemporary manner.