Museum JAN and the Cobra Museum of Modern Art present the art treasures of the municipality of Amstelveen in the exhibition 'Collected for Amstelveen – the municipal art collection'. Over the past 70 years, the municipality has built up a leading collection of visual art. This diverse collection is now being shown to the public for the first time and is accessible free of charge to all residents of Amstelveen.

The municipal art collection

Around 1955, the Amstelveen municipal council began collecting visual art, initially without a specific acquisition policy. The choice of certain works or artists depended heavily on the available budget and the administrators involved. The city council commissioned artists, galleries, and the former exhibition center Aemstelle, or purchased directly from them. Over the past seventy years, many groundbreaking works of art have been collected, which the museums of Amstelveen are now eager to present.

Exhibition at Museum JAN

Museum JAN is exhibiting a selection from the so-called Topographical Atlas. Starting in 1958, the city council commissioned artists to capture the rapidly changing landscape in and around Amstelveen. At the time, Amstelveen was the fastest-growing municipality in the Netherlands: farmland, polders, and characteristic buildings disappeared to make way for new developments. This resulted in a collection of watercolors, drawings, photographs, and a few paintings. The collection grew steadily in the 1960s, but came to a standstill in the 1970s. In 1985, a new start was made. This time, the city council opted for photography.

In the twenty-first century, the Topographical Atlas is being updated in a contemporary way. The exhibition at Museum JAN shows three new works by contemporary artists who have responded to the current landscape of Amstelveen. Artists Jaehun Park (South Korea, 1986), Mitchell Thar (United States, 1991), and Yana Naidenov (Mozambique, 1988) have visualized Amstelveen with digital sculptures and physical installations.

Jaehun Park, Fluidic City, 2022

Exhibition at the Cobra Museum of Modern Art

The Cobra Museum of Modern Art is simultaneously exhibiting a selection of works from the depots of the municipality of Amstelveen. This selection includes both nationally and regionally renowned artists: 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 insight into the municipality's art policy.

The Cobra Museum also presents a contemporary reflection on the municipal art collection. Studio Johannes Verwoerd has used augmented reality to create a digital repository where you can view artworks from the collection that are not on display.

Discover more about ‘Collected for Amstelveen’ at the Cobra Museum of Modern Art.