As part of the Amsterdam 750 anniversary celebrations, H’ART Museum is mounting a unique exhibition focusing on 75 highly diverse artists who have contributed to the colourful image of the city in the past and present. Subjects range from Johan Cruyff seen through the eyes of Marlene Dumas (b. 1953) to 1990s Amsterdam viewed through the lens of Erwin Olaf (1959-2023). Happy Birthday Amsterdam (4 December 2024 – 16 March 2025) will present a colourful and richly varied parade of images celebrating Amsterdam as a city of art. The museum has chosen an unusually free arrangement, without any chronology and art historical categories, to reflect the unconventional nature of the city. Each of the 75 prominent artists featured in the exhibition has made a distinctive contribution to the artistic and public image of the city today. The selection of works on show constitutes the museum’s tribute to the city, its people, its various neighbourhoods, and the artists who have lived, worked or spent time there over the past few centuries.
The exhibition is the result of a close partnership between H’ART Museum and the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (English: Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands) or RCE, its main source of loan items for Happy Birthday Amsterdam. The more than 100,000 objects in the stewardship of the RCE form one of the largest art collections in the Netherlands. The vast majority of this ‘national collection’ are kept at the CollectieCentrum Nederland (CCNL), together with the collections of the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, Paleis Het Loo, and the Rijksmuseum. CCNL houses over half a million objects and is sometimes called the ‘physical memory’ of the Netherlands.
Happy Birthday Amsterdam will be the first exhibition to include over 50 RCE loans relating to the city of Amsterdam. So many locally relevant items from the national collection have rarely been exhibited together in the Dutch capital. They will be supplemented by outstanding works from other sources, such as the Amsterdam City Archives, the ABN AMRO Art Collection, De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam, and private collections.
Happy Birthday Amsterdam
The works on show will be typical of Amsterdam: colourful, diverse and forthright. They will be both surprising and familiar to art lovers and fans of the city. The public will be treated to works by a multitude of big names from the world of art: from Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680), Jacob Olie (1834-1905), Willem Witsen (1860-1923), Piet Mondriaan (1872-1944), Karel Appel (1921-2006) and Paul Huf (1924-2002) to Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990), Herman Gordijn (1932-2017), Jeroen Henneman (b. 1942), Marina Abramović (b. 1946) and Natasja Kensmil (b. 1973). The selection ranges from paintings and photographs to sound works, sculptures, and iconic examples of street scenes, textiles and Amsterdam design.
Double bill
H’ART Museum is going all out to celebrate Amsterdam 750 with a double bill of major exhibitions. Happy Birthday Amsterdam will be followed by the Leiden Collection exhibition announced earlier. The Leiden Collection was established by the Franco-American collector Dr Thomas S. Kaplan and his wife Daphne Recanati Kaplan. This is the first time that all the Rembrandts in the collection will be on show together in Amsterdam.
More Amsterdam 750 on the Amstel
The H’ART building (Amstel 51) is home to three museums: H’ART Museum, Museum of the Mind and the Amsterdam Museum. Like H’ART Museum, the Amsterdam Museum is set to celebrate the city in a variety of ways throughout the whole anniversary year. Its unique exhibition Women of Amsterdam – an ode (14 December 2024 to 31 August 2025) will focus on the stories of women, both known and anonymous, who made the city what it is today but never made it into the history books. Objects from the collection of the Amsterdam Museum will be used together with personal possessions lent to the museum and contemporary artworks to spotlight their stories and enrich the history of Amsterdam. There will be a combined ticket giving access to all the museums and exhibitions in the building.
H’ART Museum is grateful for the indispensable support of founder VriendenLoterij, partners Heineken, ELJA Foundation, and ABN AMRO, and the following funds: VSBfonds, the Cultuurfonds, VandenEnde Foundation, Gieskes-Strijbis Fonds, the Municipality of Amsterdam, Fonds21, and the H’ART Museum Friends.