Holy Inspiration, religion and spirituality in modern art

Since October 2008 the Stedelijk Museum has left its present location in the Post CS building. It is scheduled to open its new premises on the Museumplein at the end of 2009. In the run-up to the reopening of the Stedelijk Museum, De Nieuwe Kerk has invited the museum to enable the public to continue to see its collection by means of the exhibition Holy Inspiration. Religion and spirituality in modern art from 13 December 2008 to 19 April 2009.

With about 80 outstanding works from the Stedelijk collection, the exhibition Holy Inspiration will show how diverse religious experience among modern artists has been and still is. Many of the works displayed by artists like Mondrian, Malevich, Chagall, Schnabel, Rothko, Bacon, Gilbert & George, Mike Kelley and Marlene Dumas have not been seen for years and now remind us of the extraordinary breadth of the collection. Other works have been presented earlier in the museum’s permanent display, but now take on a different dimension in the context of De Nieuwe Kerk. This winter De Nieuwe Kerk will be the museum for Modern Art in Amsterdam.

World religions are the subject of sometimes fierce debate at all levels of the global community. Religion is accordingly once more at the centre of public discussion. The exhibition Holy Inspiration. Religion and spirituality in modern art reflects this situation, with outstanding works from the collection of the Stedelijk Museum.

The exhibition Holy Inspiration has been spectacularly installed in De Nieuwe Kerk. Mels Crouwel (Benthem Crouwel Architects) and Gillian Schrofer (CONCERN) designed the exhibition. Graphic designer Irma Boom was responsible for the accompanying publication. Holy Inspiration was curated by Gijs van Tuyl, director of the Stedelijk Museum, Marten Jongema, Stedelijk Museum curator, and guest curator Marty Bax.

This is the fourth collaborative exhibition organised by De Nieuwe Kerk and the Stedelijk Museum. In 1992, 2002 and 2003 they held shows of modern sculpture and of the Stedelijk Museum’s nineteenth- and early twentieth- century collection.

Holy Inspiration, religion and spirituality in modern art
Stedelijk museum in De Nieuwe Kerk

Künstler: Piet Mondrian, Kasimir Malewitsch, Marc Chagall, Julian Schnabel, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Francis Bacon, Gilbert & George, Mike Kelley, Marlene Dumas

Kuratoren: Gijs van Tuyl, Marten Jongema, Marty Bax